The love and security that surrounds a child is the foundation by which he or she grows and flourishes.
If a child doesn’t have that security blanket it can hold them back, determine their behavior and lead them into experiences no child should have to endure.
For those kids that don’t have a loving and safe environment they have to go through the foster care system, and the older they are and the more issues they have the less likely they are to find people who will take them in and give them the support they need.
Opened her home to 600 foster children
Those foster parents who do open their homes to these needy kids deserve all our praise and admiration, they are helping to turn kids’ lives around, kids that will one day become adults.
One woman and her husband have spent the last 50 years being foster parents and have given a staggering 600 children a safe haven and a second chance.
Almost 700,000 kids spent time in foster care in 2017, thousands are still on a waiting list and that’s just in the U.S. alone. Most of them have experienced horrific home lives or are born with drug addictions due to their parents but to Linda Herring from Iowa, none of this mattered.
‘I cried’ when the kids left my home
“I would just love (my foster kids) just like they were my own, probably more than I should,” Linda told Fox6 Now News.
“I cried when the kids would leave my home, no matter how long they had been there. It was so hard for me to say goodbye to them… But I kept doing it because I had so much love to give to these children in need.”
She became known in her area as the foster mom who would never turn a child away no matter their age or special needs.
Three of Linda’s 8 children were foster kids she adopted and two of these have special needs.
“It’s hard to say in words her impact. She was always available and ready for a child in need,” her adopted son Anthony, now 39, told Fox News.
“These kids were usually taken from a traumatic situation and she’d take them in, provide a warm bed, clean clothes, warm meals, and love,” Anthony said.
Retired due to health concerns
After 50 years of fostering, during which time she ran a home day care for local families, worked as a night custodian in a nearby high school and volunteered as a first responder, she had to retire due to health concerns.
She was honored by the Johnson County Board of Supervisors, with a resolution of appreciation.
The daughter of one of the children Linda adopted, who calls her “Grama Linda,” said in a heartfelt Facebook tribute to her: “It’s your time now to rest, go through your memories, put your feet up or take a nap and try to understand how incredibly worthy you are to do whatever the hell you want.”
Linda deserves all the honors and awards. What she and her husband did for these children is a true act of love.
Please share to help praise this incredible couple and the mom who gave 600 children a second chance.
