Fostering Light
The whole point of this nonprofit — Foster Light — is right there in the name. We exist to foster light in what often feels like a dark world.
It started with glimpses. Glimmers, as therapist Deb Dana calls them. Small moments that regulate your nervous system, that remind you you’re alive, that whisper you might still be standing in the middle of God’s good plan. They’re the thin places between heaven and earth — the dance party in the kitchen, the laugh you didn’t expect, the breath that reminds you life is still good.
Life is good. And it’s also unbearably hard. Being a foster parent means living in the collision of both — heartbreak and hope, grief and joy.
One day you’re soaring: watching a child open their very first Christmas gift, seeing your bio kids and foster kids weave a bond that feels unbreakable. The next day your stomach drops: walking into a courtroom heavy with loss, saying goodbye to a child you loved fully, or sitting beside a little one who feels stranded, aching for their mom or dad. You can’t fix it. You can’t carry their DNA. You can’t repair the fractures in their heart — no matter how much you want to.
Living in that middle place of grief and loss is impossibly hard. It settles into your body — in your shoulders, your chest, your exhaustion. It makes you sharp, tired, brittle. You realize: you can’t do this without more grace than you have, without help, without therapy. It’s too much for one person, or even one family, to carry.
So we foster light. We create light. We plead for light. We call out the good in families, and we do everything we can to lift the weight. We take care of therapy. We take on groceries, laundry, lawn care, haircuts, babysitting— all the practical things that eat away at energy and hope. We create space so foster parents can breathe again. So they can show up with presence, not just survival. So they can invest their energy where it matters most: in their kids.
Our goal isn’t pampering foster parents — though they deserve every massage, every treat, every ounce of care. Our goal is something deeper: to shift foster homes on their axis. To make this life sustainable. To preserve families so they don’t give up.
Because healthier parents lead to healthier homes. And healthier homes lead to healthier outcomes for kids.
That’s why Foster Light exists: to open the curtains, to let the light stream in, to remind every family and every child that the darkness does not win.
