Who is Phil Wheeler

So, for starters, Who Am I…

My name is Phil, and I’m a foster parent. However that is just one facet of me, but we will start there.

My wife, Mindy, and I set off on our foster journey early in 2015. We had talked about it for a number of years, mostly due to fertility issues that we were facing, and we wanted a family. So, why not start a family AND help out kiddos in need of a loving home. We completed all the training, and were waiting to officially be licensed. While I was at work one day in the beginning of July, I get a call from Mindy, to talk over a placement call she got. I said, “what do you mean, we aren’t licensed yet?” And she replied, yeah, I asked the same thing. Turns out we were licensed, they just hadn’t gotten to notifying us yet. So the call was a 2 for 1. We discussed it for a bit, and then happily accepted our first of many placements. Little did we know (actually we did, just not to that extent) that NO amount of training can truly prepare you for that first placement. Luckily, the agency we work through is AMAZING, and on so many levels. They have helped us through every single problem we have had in every step of our journey.

So now we are 6 years into it, and have had 9 placements to date, ranging from 1 year old to 18 years old. We have also had many respites with us over those 6 years.

In 2018, we found out we were expecting a baby of our own. WONDERFUL news, but it would lead into quite a transition for us, as we wanted to continue to foster. Our house wasn’t really big enough to for us, the baby, and multiple kiddos we had, so we decided to start house shopping. It was slow going for a while because nothing we were finding in the price range that we chose would provide everything that the 2 of us were looking for in a house. So we broadened our price range slightly, and soon after, found what we were looking for. As soon as we set foot in it, we knew we were home. Then the process of selling our house and buying the new one started. Soon, our offer was accepted, and our house was on the market. It sold quickly. Then, the end of November 2018 we packed up the old house, closed on our old house, closed on the new house, and moved everything in to the new house, all while Mindy was 8 months pregnant. Allow me to say, I don’t really recommend this approach to home ownership.

More of my history…

I have been a volunteer firefighter for over 35 years, though mostly doing Fire Police anymore due to a back injury. I am a ham radio operator, a photographer, Reiki practitioner, and collector of MANY different things. I have recently (since we got the new house) started to get things in order to try my hand at wood working. And since you are reading this, it goes without saying that I have recently also decided to try my hand at podcasting.

There isn’t much that doesn’t interest me, and there is even less that I won’t try.