Fostering Hope Mission Story 5 of 10: Saying Goodbye (Riley)
*All names were changed in the followng story.

Fostering Hope Foundation volunteers help foster families in countless ways. Organizing a foster child’s first real birthday party, making a home-cooked dinner, or helping with a school science project are just a few examples of the essential and wide-ranging aid provided to foster families.

But sometimes a volunteer goes so far above and beyond expectations it amazes everyone involved. Riley is one of those volunteers.
Foster parents Maddie and Rob Jenson opened their home to a group of teenage foster boys between the ages of 15 and 17 years old. All the boys were from broken homes and had experienced a life of extreme hardship, abandonment, and abuse.

When Maddie and Rob got word that their biological son, a member of the U.S. Army stationed in Texas, was being deployed to Afghanistan, they desperately wanted to tell him goodbye in person. But they couldn’t take the boys out of school, nor could they find anyone who could stay with them. Just when they were about to give up, Riley, a member of their Fostering Hope Foundation volunteer team, offered to help.

Riley agreed to stay with the boys while Maddie and Rob were away. She cared for them for five days. Cooking meals, helping with homework, driving them to school, and doing everything else necessary to keep a household with several teenage boys from devolving into complete chaos. And for those of you with teenage boys, you know firsthand that’s no small feat.

Thanks to Riley’s generosity and dedication, not only were Maddie and Rob able to say goodbye to their son in person, but their foster boys were able to remain in a loving, stable environment while they were away.