Schlomo and Zipporah Yeshurun’s four-year-old boy has severe medical, physical and mental needs.As parents, they cheer on every single minor and major milestone, they give hugs, they tube feed him six times a day and they juggle five different types of therapists. What is truly remarkable is that the Yeshuruns are foster parents. Their little boy, who cannot be named, is not legally or biologically theirs.Child and Family Services is recognising this month as Foster Care Month, honouring the many families who give up their time to care for children in their homes. There are approximately 115 children in foster care, either privately or at the Sunshine League Children’s Home.Mrs Yeshurun first met her foster child in the children’s ward at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital. She was his occupational therapist. Her heart immediately went out to the tiny baby who was often left laying in his hospital bed staring up at the ceiling. He could not turn over and he had less facial animation than the average premature baby.KEMH, Child and Family Services, and Family Court collectively agreed that this special needs infant needed to be placed in a therapeutic foster care. Unfortunately, the little boy was put on tube feedings, and most prospective foster care parents melted away. Meanwhile, Mrs Yeshurun and her husband Shlomo had no children of their own and had always dreamed of being foster parents. They put in an application to be a foster parent for a child with special needs, and were overjoyed to be matched with the little baby from the hospital.It was a real mental shift for Mrs Yeshurun to change from being the child’s occupational therapist to being his therapist, nurse and mother.“All of the sudden we had this little guy,” she said. “He was nine months old when we had him and now he is almost four years old. He is both physically and mentally challenged. He is what we call in therapy, medically complex.“We had to manage the six times a day tube feeding. At the time he had respiratory problems. After we got him and went with him to Boston Children’s Hospital he was also diagnosed with hearing loss. Now we are managing the tube feed, the hearing aids, the severe cognitive delays. He is still not able to stand or walk, but he is making progress.”The Yeshuruns’ level of commitment classifies them as therapeutic foster care. Therapeutic foster parents are given extra financial compensation to take care of their foster child. The Yeshuruns were also given a special caregiver to give them a break twice a week.“We were going and going and just adapting as we were going along so much to the point that we didn’t realise how burned out we were getting sometimes,” said Mrs Yeshurun.Mr Yeshurun works for the airline industry. He stays at home and cares for their foster child during the week. He is able to commute to work in the United States, several weekends a month.“What I have learned from this is that we take for granted life’s rhythm,” said Mr Yeshurun.“My son is so delayed that the small milestones are worthy of great celebration. We often say that if we had had a normal child, we would have missed those milestones, because they normally happen so fast.”The little boy has made huge progress since coming to live with the Yeshuruns. He now reacts excitedly when they come home. He can sit up on his own and is just about standing.“What excited me is to see him through,” said Mrs Yeshurun. “He has the environment necessary to thrive. If he never gets normal, as far as what we deem normal, it is fine with us. For us, there is a great reward. I don’t think there is much negativity around it. It has become our lives.”There are different types of foster care situations. Some children in foster care are fostered by relatives. One woman, who did not wish to be named to protect the identity of her foster daughter, said she had been taking care of her relative for over ten years. She had seen her from a toddler into her teenage years. This type of foster care brought with it its own challenges.“It has divided our family a bit, because of the situation,” the foster mother said.“That is okay, because my main thing is taking care of the child. It is her needs I am thinking about. The hardest part, in the beginning, was the crying that she wanted her mother. Now things are mellowing out and she is now a teenager. I have seen another page in the book. She has been exposed to a lot and I made up my mind that this situation was not going to lead her to fall through the cracks. I have taken a lot of bruises from the entire family.”But she felt it had been worth it. Her foster daughter’s behaviour had stabilised, and she is now a B student.“She feels better about herself,” the foster mother said. “This is a little girl that used to hate herself. Nobody could tell her she was beautiful. If you told her she was pretty, she would accuse us of lying to her. Now there are no flies on her. She is very confident.”Foster parents Kavin and Dawn Smith said they fell into foster care for the child of an acquaintance. They already had two children of their own.“In our case, we knew the child,” said Mr Smith.“The mother approached us and asked us to look after her baby for a few days. She is now almost two years old.”Mr Smith said when they first took in the child, they worried that there might be something wrong with her. She often lay in her carrier with no expression on her face. She is now a completely different child.“She went from that to non-stop,” said Mr Smith. “It was phenomenal once we started seeing those types of changes taking place. She has taken over the house. There is nothing wrong with her. The educational therapist from the Child Development Programme [which assesses almost all toddlers in the community] said she is ahead.”Selena Simons, foster care coordinator at Child and Family Services, said they hoped to use Foster Care Month to encourage other families to be come foster parents.“I hope to spread the message about the large pool of active nurturing foster parents that we have who are caring for foster children, but we always need more,” she said.Children are placed in foster care for a number of reasons. The common ones are lack of housing, unemployment, chronic substance abuse, and issues with mental health. Child and Family Services does work to reunite children with their biological family if it is possible.“We are bound by Family Court,” said Mrs Simons. “The expectation of every case is that we will bring updated reports to the court, on the biological family and what various steps they may be making to prepare themselves and their family and whoever they live with. It is about what steps they are making to get their children back.”Many foster care situations in Bermuda are long-term. Many foster parents come to love their foster children, but it is very difficult to adopt foster care children here.“The adoptions that have occurred from foster care have been few and far between,” said Mrs Simons. “We had three foster care adoptions in 2010. And this year, there are two on the schedule. But it is very difficult, because the court is hesitant in moving forward without parental consent.”It is up to the foster care parents to track down the biological parents of the foster child in question, and get them to agree to the adoption. Child and Family Services does not get involved.If you are interested in becoming a foster parent, telephone 294-5871 or e-mail smsimons[AT]gov.bmThe process begins with an in-office interview. All adults living in the home are expected to comply with a police background check. A medical checklist, home assessment, and three character references are also required.