What's it like to be a foster parent?

Do you remember the movie Angels in the Outfield? An adorable kid played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt wants to reunite with his father. But the deadbeat dad says they won't be a family until the Angels win the penant. So, the kid prays and asks God to help the Angels.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character was in foster care.

Or what about I Am Sam? Sean Penn plays a mentally handicapped father of a 7-year old daughter. The State wants to take the child away, but the father fights in court with the help of a lawyer to try to keep her.

The 7-year old, played by Dakota Fanning, is placed in foster care during the court battle.

A year and a half ago, my wife and I received our first foster placement. Two adorable little girls came to live with us. A year later, the girls were reunited with their parents. It was heartbreaking when they went home because our hopes had gotten up that we would be able to adopt them. But we were happy that they got to go home to their parents. We still get to have them over to our house about twice a month and we love them to death.

Right now we have three children living with us. M&B, twins, came to our house most recently. When we first met them, we were able to take them out for ice cream. They were two at the time. All the way to the ice cream place, they kept saying, "I want pink ice cream" over and over. When we got there, they got different flavors. There were five of us there at the ice cream place: the twins, me and my wife, and S, our oldest. The twins still remember what flavor of ice cream each person got.

They make us laugh every day. We don't know for sure if we'll be able to adopt them or if they will be reunited with their parents. Either way, we are glad that they are a part of our lives.

We became foster parents because my wife was a second grade teacher and one of her students had a very difficult home situation. She wished that she could do more than just teach him. So, she researched foster care.

I felt that I had to be supportive, so I did what I had to do, but this was my wife's thing. We had to go to 32 hours of parenting classes before we got our foster care license. I did not enjoy the classes and I had to be dragged to every one of them. It was scary not knowing when we would be placed with children, what they would be like, or how long they would be with us. Then my wife's fingerprints didn't come through clearly during the background check process and that delayed us for months. Luckily, though, my wife dragged me through the process and we got licensed.

Every one of the kids we have had in our home has been a blessing. I wish they were all potty-trained and that they slept through the night every night and that we didn't have to drive to so many appointments. But it is well worth it.

When people find out that we are foster parents, a surprising number say that they have thought about fostering too. They ask us questions about the process of getting licensed and whether we've enjoyed it. We love it and highly recommend it.

If you have questions about foster care, contact the Utah Foster Care Foundation or the foster care organizations in your state.