SNOW HILL – While most parents are eager for the time and space a child going off to college provides, Matt and Laura Impink weren’t so sure it was for them.
To address their concerns, the Ocean Pines couple didn’t go out and find a hobby. They found a family.
The Impinks have taken two boys, one- and three-year-old brothers, into their home through the Worcester County foster care program. While their 18-year-old daughter is attending college classes, they’re changing diapers and cleaning bottles.
“It was a pretty drastic change going from having a teenager in the house to not one but two baby boys,” Matt Impink said. “But it has been amazing. We wanted to have the opportunity to share our home and hearts with children in need. Every day we are so blessed because of the joy the boys bring to our lives.”
Impink said transition into being a home with young children again was made easier by the support of the community. Baby donations from friends and community members poured in.
“It takes a village,” he said. “We now know its true meaning.”
While grateful for couples like the Impinks, staff at the county’s department of social services say they need more families willing to foster children in need. It can be particularly hard to find parents willing to foster groups of siblings and teenage children. The department makes it a priority to keep brothers and sisters together.
“From the very beginning, Matt and Laura were always receptive to fostering,” said Jami Truitt of the Worcester County Department of Social Services. “They wanted to be involved in the foster system and whatever that looked like. They made it a point to understand the philosophy behind the program and the need to give children a safe haven.”
Impink said it was a big decision.
“We thought long and hard about it because we needed to make sure we were prepared to love these little boys with all we had but know one day they could leave to be reunited with their birth parents,” he said.
Reunification is indeed the goal of social services.
“We want what is in the best interest of the child or children,” Truitt said. “We also make a point to make sure every [foster] parent understands that reunification is the goal. When the birth parents have proven to us that they have made changes to their lifestyle to provide a safe and acceptable home for their children, we advocate for them in hopes that the courts will place the children back in their care.”
The Worcester County Department of Social Services works to provide a support system for children and families, offering guidance, support, training and resources to those involved.
“Kids come to you as they are, not as you want them to be,” Truitt said. “Foster parents need to be ready to accept them as they are. They didn’t make the choices that brought them to this point in their lives. Many times people want to hold the children accountable when really it is the behavior of the parents that got them to where they are, and, through abuse and trauma, molded them into the person they have become.”
Impink credits the PRIDE (Parent Resources for Information, Development and Education) program with preparing he and his wife. The program, designed to prepare and educate families interested in participating in foster care, promoted the need to understand how to best help children who have been abused or neglected.
“You’re not alone,” Impink said. “The department of social services is always there to help. The process for my wife and I was smooth sailing. The PRIDE classes taught me so much about parenting I wish they would have been offered when I had my daughter. They were so helpful that I truly believe every new parent should go through them. They would learn so much and be better prepared for what lies ahead.”
Prospective foster parents are expected to attend nine of the three-hour PRIDE sessions. They’re also required to go through a variety of background checks, a home study, a home inspection, medical exams, training, be over 21, have adequate income and personal references. For more information about the foster care program contact Ne-Shant Sims, Tri-County Regional Resource Home Recruiter, at 410-713-3959.