Post Date: Oct 28, 2014
Source: Waterloo Chronicle
Author: Bob Vrbanac, Chronicle Staff
Sally Izzio has never really got out of those baby years of changing diapers and making bottles with the more than 40 babies her family has helped foster over the last decade.
With more than 492 local children in need of foster care locally last year and 201 families in the community available to help them, the phone call that another baby is on the way is almost constant.
“We’re always on call,” she said. “We decided this is it, we know this is where we want to be and what we’re going to do.”
The rest of the family doesn’t seem to mind. Her husband Peter and their five children have all come to see it as part of who they are as a family. They have all pitched in where they can to give these newborns the same start in life anyone could hope for while the situation with the birth parents sorted out by Family and Children’s Services of Waterloo Region.
Izzio said that sometimes family, friends and acquaintances don’t understand the commitment they’ve made. They are on call and that has led to the last minute additions of diapers or formula in grocery store line. While some might see it as hectic, the active family wouldn’t have it any other way.
“It’s sort of an obscure notion to a lot of people in the general public,” said Izzio. “That’s also been our experience with friends, family and people we meet — they think fostering is sponsoring a child overseas and getting their picture.
“We’re actively parenting this child.”
The seed of becoming foster parents was planted almost a decade ago when Sally and Peter talked about doing something that tied into their love of children.
“My husband came home from work one day and said he heard on the radio that the agency needs foster parents to take in babies,” said Izzio, who said she harboured the idea of fostering for years after being touched by another couple’s long history of being foster parents. “He said we have the opportunity to give back and maybe this is our time.”
They took their first tentative steps by taking the training session to become foster parents. After their first night of training their decision to help was cemented.
“I remember waiting for that phone call, and my first placement was short,” said Sally. “Since then we’ve got the call and it usually starts, ‘We’ve never had this situation before and here it is and can we bring them to you.’ Within an hour you have a new little person in your house.”
They’ve adopted one of the children they fostered and had their own surprise baby three years ago. The Izzio children range in age from three-and-a-half to 24 years old, and they’ve all been part of the family’s effort to give a child in need some stability in life.
Sally remembers her 18-year-old daughter helping with one of the babies that stayed with them while the paperwork was being sorted out for their adoption. When the adoptive parents came by to pick up their child everyone could see the instant connection and what it meant to the couple.
“There were a lot of tears all around that day,” said Sally. “It really drove home for my daughter the importance of what we were doing.
“It’s not this child’s fault from where they came from or what they’ve seen, or what we need to do to make them feel safe, and sometimes your own family has to take a step back to do that.”
Theresa Trofymowych, a foster and adoption recruitment worker with Family and Children’s Services and the Izzio’s original caseworker, said the goal is to return the children to their natural families and they try to resolve the issue with those families 95 per cent of the time. They know the importance of have continuity of care and a sense of security for children.
But it’s the other five per cent of the time when these children need the help of a foster family that makes the work of people like the Izzio family so important.
“They’re a warm, nurturing family who have opened their hearts and their home to children in need,” said Trofymowych. “They believe in helping the children in our community.”
Family and Children’s Services tries to place children with close relatives, friends and grandparents before looking to the community for support. When those support networks aren’t in place, it’s fosters families who step up to fill the gap in the social safety net.
“We’re keeping kids close to home and hopefully, in time, their birth parents can assume their role again,” said Sally.
A sense of humour comes in handy, especially when they get the late night call or last minute plea for help.
“It keeps you young and it keeps you busy,” said Sally. “It’s either we need a new hobby or we need more kids.
“You walk around with a new baby and people ask how old and I say four days, don’t I look great?”
But there’s also a sense of accomplishment. That’s why they wanted to share their story and the story of the ongoing need for more foster families during foster family appreciation week last week.
Peter, who volunteers on the Family and Children’s Services board, said if more people knew about the local children in need, they would help.
“I think they would be lined up around the corner too help if they could,” he said.
They both agree — they can’t see not having the space for a child in need. “We just got to stop having our own,” said Peter with a laugh.
They know they’re lucky. They Izzio’s just want to give other kids the same chance.
“We know that 99 per cent of these moms don’t want to have their kids in care,” said Sally. “It’s not they don’t care about their children, they’re impacted by their circumstances.
“We want these kids to know when they’re growing up that there was a continuity of love in their life, and that they were always loved and always taken care of.”
For more on fostering visit www.fosteringkids.ca or call 519-576-1329.