Would you foster a child? One parent: ‘It’s the best thing I’ve ever done’

Lisa Blackmore says the question she is asked most as a foster parent is: Don't you get too attached?

“And the answer is yes. We absolutely love this little boy who's in our family,” she said.

May is "Foster Care Month" in Washington. And there's a shortage of qualified homes for the thousands of kids who need a foster parent.

KUOW wanted to learn more about the state of foster care here. So we held an event called Ask A Foster Parent, with the help of Amara, a nonprofit dedicated to improving foster care and creating emergency shelters.

There were some common themes at the event.

There's an urge to help children in need, but also many concerns about the process and potential downsides.

It also became apparent that there is more support than ever for foster parents, and fewer restrictions based on marriage, sexual orientation or job status.

Blackmore is a photographer who has been a foster parent for over three and a half years.

In that time, her family has fostered five baby boys. “We would love to adopt at some point, but that has not been an opportunity presented to us so far,” she said.

Her family has now had a boy with them for two years.

She said that if her family hadn’t been able to give him love in that time, “that would be a really sad situation, if we didn't sing him lullabies or tell him we love him or snuggle him.

“And so I would say yes we do get attached and that's actually a good thing."

KUOW’s “Ask A Foster Parent” event took place May 12 at Amara, in the Hillman City neighborhood of Seattle.

To learn more about KUOW’s Ask A series go to ask.kuow.org