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Phil Wheeler

Host/Editor/Webmaster/Creator

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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.

    Mindy Wheeler

    Host/Webmaster/Blog/Moral Support

    As a mom, us women usually forget about ourselves, so writing a little bio of myself makes me take a step back and remember who I am besides “mom…..mom…mom…..moooooommmmm!”

    Prior to kiddos I had a lot of hobbies and always liked trying new things. I was active in community theater, enjoyed arts and crafts in so many ways, loved baking or cooking, liked learning new things or taking out of the blue classes like Reiki or American Sign Language. And as I write this I realize I’m using the past tense. So, little reminder to myself not to lose who I am as a person IN ADDITION to being “mom.”

    I always saw myself as a caregiver, started babysitting as soon as I was allowed (I think I was 12 or 13), continued in childcare in my adult life as a nanny or babysitter at times, so being a mom was always something I looked forward to. In my 20’s I was diagnosed with PCOS, which causes hormonal imbalances and, among other things, infertility. After many years of trying, sometimes with fertility treatments, we decided that perhaps biological children aren’t in the cards for us, so fostercare was our logical next step, especially as we had already discussed wanting to be foster parents regardless of biological kids or not.

    At this point we’re past the 5 year mark as foster parents and it’s been a whirlwind adventure! I couldn’t be more blessed to be doing this adventure with my amazing husband, Phil, and couldn’t ask for a better support system than him, our families and our agency.

    We’ve had numerous kiddos of all ages (1-18) in our home over these years and have learned and grown so much as individuals, as a couple, and as parents. In the middle of it all, we spontaneously got pregnant, so now are blessed with a little monkey who makes our already crazy house more chaotic and loud and sometimes suspiciously quiet.

    We feel there is never too much information out there and never enough support through the difficult, but rewarding, journey of foster care, so we want to share our knowledge and lessons we’ve learned with anyone who might listen and definitely hope to always learn more.