Foster Parent Interview: Michelle & Lorenzo Rodriguez
The Rodriguez family has been foster parenting since 2019. Over those years, they’ve cared for 4 kiddos and helped with some respite care. We admire the connections they've made with their foster children's bio families. We sat down with them to hear more about their story.
Q: Tell us a little bit about your journey of becoming foster parents.
Michelle: It's always been a desire of my heart. It took a little bit to convince [Lorenzo] that we should try it. And I just felt all of the kids that come to our home - they deserve to be loved. I just wanted to be able to provide a loving and safe home.
Q: Was there anything in particular that like inspired you to go down this path?
Michelle: I am a legal assistant for the city. And so I will see cases about kids and I would always tell [Lorenzo], I just want to bring the kids home. I see some of the traumatic homes that these kiddos come from, I just want to be a support person for them, and so I think that was what really kind of opened my eyes.
Lorenzo: Yeah, I think you pretty much hit the nail on the head - Michelle's always had a bleeding heart to help other people. When she first brought it up, it wasn't really a surprise to me. For me, it was more the hoops that we have to jump through, you know, the behind-the-curtains that made up a hesitation.
When we bring kids into our home, we want to treat them like they're our own kids, right? We're opening our family, we're extending ourselves to encompass this child. One of the things that we both decided early on was that for every child that came into our home, we were going to do our best to show them what a family can be. And I think we've done that pretty well with all the kiddos that came into our care.
Q: What's been the most rewarding part of being foster parents?
Michelle: Just seeing the kids that come through our home develop relationships with our kids and extended family. It’s like we’re creating a larger family for ourselves through all the kids that have come to our home.
Another really rewarding thing for me was when we had another little girl. At court, I sat down with her mom. I'd never met her mom before but I sat down and I just remember telling her, “I'm not here to take your baby, I just want to provide a safe, loving home until you can,” and she was crying and we just sat there and talked. And fast forward - she and I talk daily to this day.
Lorenzo: For me, it would most definitely be a tie between the growth of the kids and the growth of Michelle and I. When [our current placement] came to us she didn't make a peep. She didn't know how to ask for water or anything. And I mean, you saw how she is now, she's a goof! We got to watch her come out of her shell and develop who she is.
Q: How has Skookum Kids supported you throughout your foster care journey?
Michelle: I have found the most support recently through the Case Aides. And I don't know what I do without them right now. [Our current placement] has an early release every month from daycare. A case aide comes and picks her up and take her to the park, or to the library or whatever until I'm off work. Without that part of Skookum, I could not work full-time and care for her.
Q: Over half of Skookum’s funding comes from donations. What would you say to our donors?
Lorenzo: I most definitely want to say thank you. We weren't in this to adopt children. Skookum’s mission is to reunite [children with bio families] and that's why we went through Skookum. We just wouldn't be able to do what we've done had we not had the support of Skookum.
Michelle: I think that it's important for the donors to know that the work Skookum is doing is really impactful. Not just in foster homes, but the Landing as well. We are so thankful to be in partnership with Skookum, so that we have that support.
Q: Is there anything else that you would like to share about your experience as foster parents or your relationship with Skookum?
Lorenzo: I appreciate the support groups that Skookum has put on. We attended some of the trainings that helped with some of our situations.
Michelle: Yeah, it's really neat to network through them. We met another foster parent there and we ended up doing respite for her and just being able to connect in that way when we're doing respite or we're asking for respite, that it's not just a random person like we've established these connections and so that's really nice.
I'll add that when a co-worker found out that we did foster care, his initial reaction was, “Why would you want to do that?” And I was like, '“Well, you're not doing it you know, somebody's got to! These kids deserve a safe loving home and clearly, you're not interested, so somebody's got to.” These kids deserve a safe, loving home, and if we have the means to be able to provide that, then we can and should.
