An encounter with a foster child she met marked the start of a new life for Lauren Vincent. “I saw what her foster parents were able to give her in that time of need. I’ve heard: ‘Once you know a [foster] child’s name and see their face, it’s much harder to walk away from the crisis.’ And that was so true for me… I saw the need and I couldn’t deny it anymore,” she says. Lauren signed up with St. Joe’s as a foster parent for medically fragile children because of her background in working with kids who have neurological disorders.
Her turning point
In June 2021, St. Joe’s paired Lauren with a medically fragile baby girl and her sibling with the intent of reuniting them with their bio family. She had no plans of becoming an adoptive parent, but a turn of events changed everything. “For a lot of reasons, it became clear that [reunification] wasn’t going to work out,” she says.
Before the court changed the siblings’ status to adoption, their caseworker asked Lauren if she would be willing to adopt them, and without hesitation, she said yes. She officially started the adoption process last month. “I love them more than anything. They are the greatest kids. We have been on a long journey for 2.5 years so it was easy to say yes to adopting them even though that wasn’t my plan going into it.”
Lauren says the care she has received from St. Joe’s gave her confidence that everything would work out and has inspired her to leave her home open for placement of other St. Joe’s kids. “My friends have referred to St. Joe’s as the dreamland of foster care. They [St. Joe’s] have provided medical resources the state and insurance wouldn’t cover in addition to extra therapy and support groups. This is why this journey is so much greater and sweeter.”
An added benefit, Lauren says, has been the new friendships she has forged with other foster families through St. Joe’s. “We met through support groups and now we hang out outside of St. Joe’s. The kids understand each other, and the adults understand each other, because we are all going through the same thing.”
There’s more than one way to help
Indecisive about becoming a foster parent? Lauren suggests attending one of our information meetings held the first Tuesday of every month at 5:45 p.m. at St. Joseph Children’s Home (2823 Frankfort Avenue). “Everyone can be involved in foster care in some sort of way – even if it is just respite care. If you are a St. Joe’s family, you will have everything you ever need or want and they will do anything for their foster families.”
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