5/9/2009 8:34:00 AM Orchard mother wants children to have good life
Sheryl Schmeckpeper/Daily NewsOn Mother's Day, Barbara Schwager expects to hear from her biological children as well as some of the children for whom she and her husband, Sam, have been foster parents over the years.
More foster families needed
The need for foster parents is great, said Holly Harrison, a therapeutic foster care case coordinator with Behavioral Health Specialists in Norfolk.
Although the agency has 24 trained, licensed foster families available, there are times when it doesn't have any available and, as a result, can't place a child referred to them by Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services.
When that happens, the child may end up in a shelter, Harrison said.
Children between the ages of 3 and 18 years can be placed in foster care. The length of stay varies, Harrison said.
"It can be a week or up to three years," she added.
Becoming a foster family is easy. Parents must participate in nine training sessions, and the Department of Health and Human Services must inspect the home. The staff of Behavioral Health Specialists can help with the paperwork.
"The need is growing," Harrison said. "We have placements once a week that we don't have homes for."
ORCHARD - Barbara Schwager spent this past week preparing for visitors. But they're not coming to help her celebrate Mother's Day.
Instead, she and husband, Sam, will have a house full of people to help their foster son celebrate his high school graduation.
Schwager has lost track of how many children she and her husband have been foster parents for in the past nine years. Twenty-five might be too low and 30 might be a bit high.
They serve as fosters parents via Behavioral Health Specialists in Norfolk.
In addition to having farmland, the Schwagers own and operate Statewide Insurance and Real Estate, and Barbara Schwager is a substitute teacher.
Their reasons for taking children into their home are simple: "I had a good childhood. We want them to have a good childhood, too," Barbara Schwager said during a recent break from sprucing up the yard in preparation for the graduation party.
Schwager was a Beltz before she married her husband 37 years ago. She grew up in the Orchard and Neligh area and spent her childhood playing with cousins, fishing in nearby ponds, hunting mushrooms and participating in life.
She wants their foster children to have the same opportunities.
So flying kites, camping in the backyard and hunting for nightcrawlers are all part of the Schwager experience.
But life in Orchard isn't all fun and games.
"I take them to garage sales . . . to teach them how to stretch their money," she said.
The couple also put an emphasis on education and participation in sports and extracurricular activities. Part-time jobs are part of the mix, and church attendance is a must.
In addition, the family eats meals together, which gives them time to talk about what's going on in everyone's lives.
While the couple want to be friends with their "children," they recognize they have to be parents first.
After all, many of their foster children come from homes where education, work and responsibility take a back seat to other endeavors.
The Schwagers hope they are modeling behaviors and teaching skills that will help their foster children make right choices once they leave the nest.
Their methods seem to be working.
In addition to hearing from her three biological children - Jason, Matthew and Sheila - on Mother's Day, Schwager expects to get calls from a number of their previous foster children, some of whom are grown and now have families of their own.
She also sent cards to some of their mothers.
"Kids don't come with an instruction book," she said. "It's hard."
Which is why she tries to offer support to struggling parents who have their children placed in foster homes. Many of those children eventually return to their families.
