I foster three children, and one afternoon my neighbor looked over the fence and remarked, \u201cMust be nice, getting paid to parent.\u201d Her comment stung, and before I realized it, my hand rested gently on my young daughter\u2019s shoulder as we stood together in the yard.<\/p>\n
Without missing a beat, my six-year-old calmly set down her lemonade, smiled, and replied, \u201cThen why did your daughter tell me last week she wishes she lived at our house instead?\u201d The words were simple, but they carried more truth than any adult could have argued.<\/p>\n
My neighbor fell silent and glanced at her own daughter, who suddenly couldn\u2019t meet anyone\u2019s eyes. There was nothing left to say. The conversation ended right there, and neither of us ever mentioned it again.<\/p>\n
Since then, we still wave to each other across the fence every morning as if nothing happened. But I\u2019ve never forgotten that moment. The monthly foster care payment may help with expenses, but it could never measure the love, safety, and belonging my daughter recognized\u2014and defended\u2014with just one honest sentence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I foster three children, and one afternoon my neighbor looked over the fence and remarked, \u201cMust be nice, getting paid to parent.\u201d Her comment stung, and before… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8956,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n