"We had a lot of love between us, and part of our dream was to share that love with kids.”
Jen Kraemer Straub and her spouse Carol became the lifeline for 6-month-old Marina whose health was failing. Marina had been diagnosed with Biliary Atresia and needed a liver transplant; but she couldn’t be placed on the transplant list without a foster family to care for her.
Without hesitation, Jen and Carol started the process of becoming Marina’s foster parents. “I had worked with kids and families who either needed to be fostered or adopted. Some of those kids were medically complex. It became a shared dream . We had a lot of love between us, and part of our dream was to share that love with kids,” says Jen. When they began fostering Marina in April of 2019, she had been admitted into a children’s hospital in Cincinnati. She spent two weeks with them in Louisville before being readmitted into the hospital in May to await a match for the transplant. Since Marina’s care team was based in Cincinnati, the family – with the help of St. Joe’s – relocated to the city where they remained for four months. Marina had the liver transplant in July 2019 and the couple adopted her in March 2021. Marina, who is now 5 years old, stays active on the playground, gushes over pandas, and sings a song that symbolizes her new life. “Sometimes, she will hum the melody of a song that the liver team sang to her when she was leaving the hospital after the transplant. It’s called “Best Day of My Life” by American Authors…for me, it was that moment of ‘wow, she truly has been given a second chance at life.’” Our St. Joe’s kids need loving people who are willing to be foster care parents. Take the first step with us: (502) 893.0241.