Fostering Kindness

You know those people who make you happy to simply exist in the same shared space? The positive energy that radiates from them seeps into your bones and makes you feel like a better person. Corinne is one of those. When I see her, which is not nearly enough, I walk away feeling energized, with a renewed sense of how we can change the world, one small step at a time.

I met Corinne years ago, on the playground of our neighborhood elementary school. She was another busy mom trying to wrangle three kids while juggling her career as a neonatal nurse. I liked Corinne right away, her warm smile and gentle way, her comfortable and easy going style.

I was happy to run into my old friend recently on a walk downtown. As I passed Corinne’s house, she called out and waved, while doing that “new mom sway,” a little baby in her arms. She stood on the porch with her three kids and husband nearby, each family member close enough to hover over the little bundle Corinne held close. I crossed the street to say hello, a bit befuddled by the infant in her care.

“What is going on?” I asked. “Who is this?”

I was struck by Corinne’s words when she explained her new passion as a foster parent. “It’s just a little something I do,” she told me. “There are lots of ways to give back. Friends volunteer in schools and as room parents. Some are coaches. I just decided to foster.”

While so many of my contemporaries, parents-of-a-certain-age, are grateful to be done with the labor intensive early years of parenting, Corinne signed up to do it all over again. “I love these babies,” she told me. “They just need love and they need attention and it’s an easy thing for me to give.”

Although I cannot imagine that it is as simple as she says, I can see, all over Corinne’s beautiful face, that it is worth it. As much as she has given to the babies in her care, she has received in return, manifold. It is kindness; once you start giving it, you want to do more; you feel you must.

Corinne tries to stay in touch with those children she’s fostered. She checks on them and their families, pitches in when they need a little extra. And with that, her love continues and grows and makes this world we live in just a little warmer, a little kinder.

Corinne was eager to tell me that she would not have been unable to take on this new cause without the commitment of her husband Chris, who has embraced each child as she has. “I could not do it without him,” she told me. She’s also grateful for the support of friends and family, who offer time and energy when needed. “People babysit and drop things off. Everyone has been so great.”

Corinne told me about The Foster Box, a free resource available to foster families in the Greater Boston area. Her good friends Karen, who encouraged Corinne in her fostering journey, is one of the founders of The Foster Box, a resource that provides clothes and children’s items to foster families, specifically during the period of transition. You can donate time, money, and goods to The Foster Box and, in doing so, help take care of the details so foster families can spend more time loving and welcoming new children.

How lucky are we to exist in a universe with people like Corinne and Karen and what I imagine is a legion of friends and family who are doing good, who are helping out, just because they can? Please visit The Foster Box and join me in giving what you can.

#blessed #kindnessforkids #kindCorinneandKaren #thefosterbox