Foster parenting is about the children. For anyone who has been wondering about becoming a foster parent, next week at the Weyburn Public Library, the Saskatchewan Foster Families Association will offer a free informational session to meet prospective foster parents and to answer any and all questions they may have about fostering in the province.

“I think that it does require special people. There’s no question about that,” said former Weyburn Mayor Debra Button, who was also a foster parent for a number of years. “But I strongly encourage anyone who is even remotely thinking about it to step up and to do it.”

The SFFA has been holding these informational sessions all over the province in an effort to draw in more foster families.

Button said that she has had the chance to tour several orphanages in Ukraine, noting that we do not want to have to resort to that system here.

“Having these children come into your home and become a part of your family, for however long it is, I would strongly encourage it,” she said. “It is one of the most biggest blessings we’ve had, and one of the most biggest challenges we’ve had – like any other parent.”

“I would strongly encourage anyone who’s thinking about it to step forward,” said Button, expressing that making the decision to foster is, ultimately, all about the children.

The Buttons’ own fostering story began after the birth mother took back a child they had raised for the first 7 months.

“As life-changing and crippling as that event was on our life’s journey, it did lead us on another path,” she said, noting that it made her and her husband Greg wonder if they should foster.

“If we could lose a child who was ours in our minds and our hearts at that point in time, could we have the right stuff to become foster parents? Would we be able to do that? And we thought about it for a long, long time, before we approached Social Services.”

At the time, Button was running for Mayor and ended up not winning that election.

“Quickly after that, we knew the answer was because we were supposed to take this journey as foster parents, and we did that,” she said. “We had several children in our home over the years who became a part of our hearts.”

She said that many people have asked her and Greg what is begged of foster parents everywhere, “How do you do it?”  How do you give a child back after bonding with them and providing them with a home and nurturing them every day, for however long?

“As hard as it is to say goodbye to a child who has a piece of your heart, imagine, just imagine what it’s like for those children,” Button answered. “You know, as an adult, it’s hard, but as a child, I don’t know how they always manage, but they’re resilient, and they do. Some better than others.”

She noted another misconception.

“So often, too, people think there’s something wrong with that child, who’s coming into your home, and there’s not something wrong with the child,” she explained. “It’s something going on in a situation that’s not quite right.”

Fostering is, after all, about the children being given a safe and nurturing environment.

The free, come-and-go, informational event will be held in the program room at the library from 11 a.m. to noon on July 25.