Foster care

Heather always knew she would adopt. She grew up in a busy household with seven other siblings, five of them adopted. At 26 she took the plunge to adopt as a single and has never looked back. Now, with two adopted sons with Down Syndrome, Heather lives a full life. Here, we get a glimpse into her life, and she shares her experience with the adoption process, as well as some words of wisdom. 

Here are some of the articles from our long-running Diary of an Adoptive Mom series. This adoptive mother shares her experiences and secret thoughts of raising three children. This series ran from 2006 to 2010.

Note: Diary entries #1 to #7 are unavailable 

Jamie and Tyler Giesbrecht always wanted a big family, but for a while it didn’t seem to be happening naturally. They started fostering, which turned into adoption, and today they have the big family they always dreamed of! This is their adoption story.

Jussi and Colleen Yrjana adopted two beautiful daughters from Democratic Republic of Congo in 2012 (learn about their adoption story in this article from the spring 2013 issue of Focus on Adoption). Now, as well as their two adopted daughters, three grown children, and five grandchildren, they are also a foster family. This is their fostering story.

Q&A: Shawn Duthie

Shawn lives in Revelstoke with his wife, Leah. He’s been a foster dad for over a decade, and his adopted kids range in age from 4 to 33.

Communities of friends and family love to celebrate with one another. We celebrate graduation. We celebrate marriage. We celebrate pregnancy. But how do we celebrate adoption, especially when the child is not a baby? Here’s how Heather Haynes did it.

The Adoptive Families Association of BC is proud to be one of the partner sites for the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption’s signature program, Wendy’s Wonderful Kids. In this article, Rita Soronen, the Foundation’s president & CEO, explains the program’s evidence-based and highly successful approach to finding families for some of North America’s children and youth who wait the longest.

Adoptive parents make fantastic foster parents! There's an urgent province-wide need for foster parents right now. On Vancouver Island alone, over a thousand children with widely varied needs are in government care. In this article, a foster family recruitment worker from Nanaimo explains the basics of foster caregiving and asks you­­—yes, you!—to consider making a difference for a child in need by becoming a foster home.

June 4–10 is BC Youth in Care week. It’s a time to celebrate our province’s amazing, diverse, resilient children and youth living in foster care. In this piece, Sam­—an adult advocate for youth in care and a former youth in care herself—reflects on her experiences in the child welfare system and celebrates her successes and her community.

In 2017, the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption released a ground-breaking new study of Canadian attitudes and behaviours towards adoption and foster care. The comprehensive document is packed with research and insights, but since it’s also almost 80 pages long, we’ve put together this brief overview of its key findings.