Cedarville Magazine, Spring 2018

SEVEN-YEAR-OLD FOSTER PARENT Mom sat me down when I was 7 years old and told me, “We are going to be foster parents.” I responded, “You mean, you and Dad are going to be foster parents … I’m 7.” She said, “People who need love don’t care how old you are.” In the following seven years, we fostered 36 children. And when I say “we,” I mean I was a foster parent, too. Diapers, walks around the neighborhood, meal times, and caretaking … I was in. I could change a diaper at 8 years old like a soldier field- stripped a weapon. Some kids stayed in our home for two weeks, some for two months, and a few stayed for two years. Waking up in the morning, I never knew who was going to be at the breakfast table. Or worse, who wouldn’t be there that morning. It was beautiful and brutal and chaotic. We were homeschooled, so mom taught us all how to wrangle the human spirit. Every child we fostered had some type of special need, and some who needed full-time care. At 8 years old, I learned how to adjust oxygen flow and change tanks and how to feed a child through a stomach feeding tube. It was wild and painful and beautiful and chaotic. Did I mention that it was chaotic? After our 36th child was moved from our home, my mom said, “Enough!” We needed permanence for our home, these kids, and our family. So we embarked on the second chapter of our family calling, to adopt. Over the next 10 years, we adopted eight kids from six different countries. Our family grew fast and beautifully. Never simple. Never easy. Always worth it. Hank Fortener (far left) and his wife, Sueann, with their oldest daughter, Cora during a family reunion in 2012. Fortener’s mom and dad, Chuck and Anne, are in the middle of their 11 children, eight of whom are adopted, plus daughters-in-law and grandkids. 10 | Cedarville Magazine