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Couple has taken in 109 foster children »

Posted by: Jayson 1 year, 4 months ago

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Joanie and Herb White look good for having had 112 kids. OK, 109 of the children weren't born to the Winnetka, IL couple. They were foster children taken in by the Whites during the last 28 years.Joanie knows what to do, what to expect, says Herb, a consultant with offices in Chicago and Naperville. Through the 109 she's gotten it to a science.

Read Full Story at chicagotribune.com

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Comments So Far: 49

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quackpot1 year, 4 months ago

109 of them is an amazing job.
I'm also a foster parent, and recommend it as a very fulfilling experience.
Rigth-to-life? This is the real deal. Do it.
More foster parents are needed.
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  mamasan1 year, 4 months ago
  
  good for you Quak!
  If all the Right to lifers became Foster Parents
  Instead of just whiners
  What a great world this would be!!!
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  ciera-marie1 year, 4 months ago
  
  Quackpot:
  Thank you for providing a safe home for those who need it.
  Not everyone can be foster parents. So maybe those who can't can support foster parents in other ways. Any ideas?
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einrad1 year, 4 months ago

Great story. My brother and sister in-laws are foster parents so I know second hand the rewards and also the challenges foster parents can have.
I have the utmost respect for foster parents and agree much more are needed.
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TOtheMOON1 year, 4 months ago

That's just incredible. Anyone who does foster care - wonderful people.
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kriicket1 year, 4 months ago

That sure takes someone special...I admire anyone who becomes a foster parent....I wish I had more room in my house.
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TweekerchickQC1 year, 4 months ago

I worked with kids BEFORE they got placed in foster homes...these people must be extraordinary.
How do they have the time?
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jumpmaster1 year, 4 months ago

Lucky for those kids that these people did not wait for big brother gubmint to take care of them.
Outstanding humans.
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MrTeacher19811 year, 4 months ago

As a father of 2 and a teacher I see alot of perspective where kids are concerned. These people are taking a hard job. The attachment to a baby is deep, and I honestly couldn't immagine giving one up. My youngest is only 2 and even 1 night without him tears me up. If you do this you must be ready for the emotional heartbreak it will happen.
However those who do this I applaud you. It's a calling and a hard one to do. It's worse than dating since in this case you can't break up when things get rough.
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STONERS1 year, 4 months ago

Awesome story,thanks Jayson...
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CharacterCounts1 year, 4 months ago

There is a special place in Heaven for these two. God bless 'em.
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OnlyTheTruth1 year, 4 months ago

WOW! I agree character - they go to the head of the line and get the special suite.
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eviln3d1 year, 4 months ago

I would like to think that these people are the perfect caregivers for those kids. Maybe they are, then again how often do people get foster kids solely for the money and then treat the foster kids like a stray dog? While I a foster family may be better than the real family, wouldn't the best solution be to just completely sever the real parents rights and then have families adopt the kids, no money made from doing it. You give the kids more stability and eliminate the lowlifes that use foster kids as way to make payments on the bass boat.
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mssofie1 year, 4 months ago

Amazing! God bless the family and all others who have the love and compassion for such a life long commitment.
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Jayson1 year, 4 months ago

There are no perfect caregivers and I am sure that people like these are not using the system to get money. There are much easier ways to make money than by caring for children who are dealing with serious issues like abandonment and/or abuse.
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  eviln3d1 year, 4 months ago
  
  Maybe they are doing it for love, but if you are realistic you'll have to admit that that is not always the case. Some people do it for the money and if you don't give a damn about the kids well being you can make money at it. The system doesn't require receipts showing that the money paid by the state was actually used on the foster kid. Its a system that can and is abused by some lowlife scum bags. To assume that these things don't happen is just ignoring a problem.
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29thInfantryLRS1 year, 4 months ago

Much respect to all who are foster parents!
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wildman65571 year, 4 months ago

If any of you are considering doing some fostering, I would strongly encourage it. We had a tot come to us who wouldn't cry, wouldn't laugh, wouldn't even move from where we put her. I don't want to even think of what she had been through.
She has since opened up and become a beautiful young girl who we adopted. The satisfaction from that is greater than anything I could think of.
And we don't do it for the money. Our family income is well in the six figures.
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mamasan1 year, 4 months ago

The Whites are Angels who walk among us!!!!
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evelyna1 year, 4 months ago

I do not think people should be allowed to spend thousands on fertilization treatments and such.
Kids are like all of the excess dogs and cats-all should be adopted before more are made.
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  wildman65571 year, 4 months ago
  
  Fertilization treatments create large number of fetuses that will either be used for stem cell research or will be destroyed. It is truely an abomination.
  Sorry if I insulted anyone out there but that is how I feel.
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    MetalNun1 year, 4 months ago
    
    Plus, the embryos that are chosen and finally reach viability are often born premature and/or with multiple siblings, some of whom may not survive. Those who do survive often have serious complications and require lengthy hospitalization. I agree, let's find homes for the children like the ones in this article before creating more.
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    whakked1 year, 4 months ago
    
    I know - you'd think the right to life people would be against in-vitro work. And the COST of doing so is outrageous. Full adoption is tens of thousands of dollars less.
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wildman65571 year, 4 months ago

Adopt a foster child. They are free -- the state will cover all costs.
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  eviln3d1 year, 4 months ago
  
  And that is the problem with the system. Someone like Babrinus could get a foster kid yet couldn't afford a child. Sorry but that is just the flaw in the system. How easy is it to use the money intended for the foster kid on yourself... maybe 5 dollars here or there and before you know it the foster kid is just a source of income for someone. Foster parent should have enough money that they don't need state aid and state aid should be banned. Then only people that can afford the foster kids and want them for who they are will get them.
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    quackpot1 year, 4 months ago
    
    If you are concerned about your tax dollars, don't be.
    Considering the benefit to society of having these children grow up in secure private homes so that they can become solid tax-paying citizens, the cost per child is one of the best investments that the State can make.
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      quackpot1 year, 4 months ago
      
      Even with a maximum nunber of children in your home, you will be making far below minimum wage.
      There are safegards for the child as well: Monthly in-home meetings with the child's social worker. Regular appointments with the child's state-appointed pediatrician. Weekly meetings with birth parents. Quarterly permanency planning meetings with the agency. Three or four court dates per year for the family court to check on the child's case. Anual house inspections to make sure that the home is physically safe.
      In spite of all of this, being able to help a child that is in great need is absolutely fantastic.
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        eviln3d1 year, 4 months ago
        
        Consider that in 2001 in Florida:
        *Out of 4,242 foster homes, 16% of foster homes are over their licensed capacity even though 52% of foster homes are under their licensed capacity.
        *There are currently 62 foster homes with more than 10 children.
        Now do you think a home with more than 10 kids is a home where those kids are being watched properly? I would say the limit of 5 kids in a house is too high for most people. Your aren't talking about your average child your talking about kids that at the very least have suffered some emotional trauma. Face reality, the state didn't take them from their families because they were growing up Ozzie and Harriet.
        and consider
        81 out of every 1,000 children in Florida's foster care system were neglected or abused by their foster parents or by the staff at a foster care facility. Normal familys 18.9 out of every 1,000 children in general population were the subjects of a confirmed report of neglect/abuse at the hands of parents or custodians.
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        quackpot1 year, 4 months ago
        
        Are you sure that those with 10 kids are private homes, not "group homes" or emergency shelter family homes?
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        eviln3d1 year, 4 months ago
        
        yep, according to the article it was only private homes. Just remember florida is the state where they have actually lost foster kids in the foster care system.
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      eviln3d1 year, 4 months ago
      
      Everyone should be concerned with tax dollars. On this issue it isn't about the money spent its about where the money goes and what's best for the kids. Kids aren't stupid and they know if they are taken care of by people that aren't being paid that they are truly wanted whereas kids being cared for by people that are getting a check each month don't just have love of them as a motive.
      And there is more to growing up than a secure private home. These kids need stability and you don't get that in a temporary home which is what a foster home is.
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        quackpot1 year, 4 months ago
        
        I am glad that you are interested in, and concerned about the foster care program. I hope that you learn much more about it and even consider becoming a foster parent.
        What you say about these kids needing stability is absolutely true. Unfortunately, they are in foster care because their birth parents are, for some reason, unable to care for them. While I am sure that there are exceptions, the vast majority of kids are placed in the homes of ordinary folks who care. Each child does have a permanancy plan that is worked out in conjunction with social workers, the birth parents and the courts.
        If you wish to contact me by e-mail, I will be happy to share my experiences with you.
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        eviln3d1 year, 4 months ago
        
        I only know of 3 families that have or are caring for foster kids. 2 families are clearly doing it for love, but sadly 1 is most certainly in it for the money (the home is a revolving door of foster kids half of which call DHS and ask to be picked up, one only wonders if the ones not able to use a phone would want out also).
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        puffin1 year, 4 months ago
        
        0o0o0o ned as a foster parent? Come on now... grab some sense.
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whakked1 year, 4 months ago

Adoption doesn't always have to be expensive. Talk with an agency that is affilitated with your State of residence. There are a lot of children out there that are considered difficult to adopt as individuals due to sibling groups and other so-called problems. I made myself available to adopt any child regardless of race, gender, and was willing to accept a child with treatable medical problems. It took 6 weeks to receive my daughter; another 5 months to receive my son. They are fully adopted and I didn't have to raid my retirement fund. This event is by-far the most amazing and wonderful event of my life.
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MetalNun1 year, 4 months ago

God bless this incredible family! What a huge difference they have made in the lives of all those children. It's wonderful to hear about people who are doing so much to make the world a better place.
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secret33com1 year, 4 months ago

On one hand, the couple should be praised for this enormous task of sheltering these children.
But I say shame to the foster care system for not being intelligent enough to see that it is not a good idea to have a couple in their 60's looking after 109 children!
There are hundreds of thousands of foster care parents who take the children in NOT just because they care for the children but because it is the easiest way to generate thousands of dollars from the system, without them working.
This is a racket which must be clamped down because it makes a mockery and abuse of the system designed to find comfortable homes to homeless or problem children in need of homes.
This seems to amount to abuse of foster care system.
No couple should be allowed to have more than 12 foster children in their care and the older the foster parents are, the less should be the number.
Secrtet33

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  quackpot1 year, 4 months ago
  
  I think you misread the article.
  These people have taken in 109 children over a period of 28 years. They do not have 109 now!
  Foster parents do this for the love of the children in their care, not for the money. Wal-mart pays MUCH better.
  Given the requirements for taking care of each child (visits with social workers, birth parents, doctors, court dates to say nothing of child care), taking care of just one foster child at a time is a lot! Having 12 children in a private home would be nearly impossible unless they were siblings.
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eviln3d1 year, 4 months ago

"When it comes time for the Whites to give up one of their babies, the child leaves with not only medical records and a listing of his or her schedule, habits and preferences. Joanie also writes a personal letter for each child, detailing such things as whether the baby goes shopping or to the beauty shop with her, or whether the infant sits through her various volunteer meetings. It makes the baby's transition to a new home easier."
Doesn't sound like Joanie is really worried about the welfare of the child to me. You don't take infants to beauty shops and expose them to all those chemicals. And who would take an infant to a bunch of volunteer meeting to exposer the infant to god know what germs. Doesn't sound that nice to me, sounds like shes going about her life as usual which isn't the best thing for an infant, when you have an infant it isn't supposed to be life as usual.
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  puffin1 year, 4 months ago
  
  Do you TRY to be as friggin' negative as you possibly can about everything or is this how you always are?
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    eviln3d1 year, 4 months ago
    
    I'm just trying to balance out a very lopsided article. The article makes it sound like foster kids have it made and the system is working all fine and dandy.
    The reality is not quite so pleasant. Sorry if you didn't want to see reality and just live a shelter life in rose colored glasses but those kids in foster care don't have a choice to just look at the good moments they have to survive the bad ones as well.
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      puffin1 year, 4 months ago
      
      Dude, don't even start about my life. You know dick-all about me.
      My father worked in a group home for over 20 years, now works for the justice department as a liaison for group homes. Some seriously messed up kids that had good parents that tried hard as best they could, and on the other hand some seriously messed up parents that had really good kids. I know about and have seen first-hand the the good and bad moments you talk about.
      The article is about a couple that tried damn hard to make something better for these kids when the alternative could be ... well, not so rose-colored, as you put it.
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        eviln3d1 year, 4 months ago
        
        As I said, you lived a sheltered life. You had a family and simply having a father that worked with troubled kids doesn't even start to make you an expert. I doubt dear old dad would share the worst things with you growing up and me likely tried to forget the worst things as quickly as he could.
        As your so dead set against anything negative, my perspective hasn't changed. People that get upset about seeing the dirty side of issues are trying to live sheltered lives. And considering your comments, I still believe you fall in that category. Too bad for you cause a full life has to have good and bad.
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        puffin1 year, 4 months ago
        
        Like I said - you know dick-all about me, ned. Think what you will, my life has never been sheltered.
        Lmfao @ you dude.
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ambermarie321 year, 4 months ago

There are not chemicals in a beauty shop that can seriously harm an infant unless they are ingested. I think Joanie is truly an extraordinary woman and someone to look up to.

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  eviln3d1 year, 4 months ago
  
  Unless the beauty shop only cuts and washes hair it is filled with toxic chemicals and the fumes that go along with them. Now none of those fumes will likely hurt an adult but we aren't talking about adults we're talking about infants. Would you blow smoke in there little faces? No, and you shouldn't expose them to the chemicals used for dyeing hair either...
  do you think phenylenediamines, resorcinol, 1-naphthol, 4-MMPD, 2,4-diaminoanisole, 4-chlorom-phenylenediamine, 2,4-toluenediamine, 2-nitro-p-phenylenediamine and 4-amino-2- nitrophenol of which 1/2 are know to cause cancer should be enhaled by infants?
  If a grown up wants to risk the effects of a chemical so be it, but those infants don't have a choice or the adult body to deal with the fumes in a beauty shop.
  And guess what most of those chemical don't need to be ingested they can penetrate the skin and if you smell it then it is also going ito your lungs.
  Don't yammer about how safe something is when your clueless.
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