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When Degale's foster daughter ran away, Degale said her foster care days were over. "I was never going to go through that again. I became a foster parent just for her."
But about a year later, she and Lisa attended an orientation about the Mockingbird Society's Mockingbird Family Model, a foster care concept that features a hub family to provide respite care and other resources for several other foster families.
"We both had the same reaction: 'Whoa, yeah, we can do this,'" Degale said. "This gives us an opportunity to support many—not just one."
Imagine a constellation with a bright light in the center. That's Degale and Lisa's home. They are the hub—the epicenter of a microcommunity—that keep five or six satellite families thriving at any given time. They host a monthly meeting where their community's foster parents and kids come together for good food, social time, and trainings relevant to the needs of the kids in their care. Throughout each month there are opportunities to come together for outings that engage parents and youth in positive activities like a ballgame or a museum trip or a play.
Kids and parents are constantly coming and going. One child stays every other weekend. One teenaged boy comes for tutoring, and his sister, who for a long time shrugged the concept off, started coming over to hang out, do a little homework, and practice her love of cooking.
And soon, they will welcome a new teenager to their hub family—one who asked for a lesbian couple specifically to help her deal with her own sexual identity.
“It makes me happy that we can be a resource in that situation,” Lisa said. “It would be sad for the child if she was hoping for that and it wasn’t available to her. I feel glad we can be that kind of connection.”
Degale and Lisa are looking forward to opening their doors and hearts once again, because for them, family isn’t a definition they can find in a textbook.
It’s one they create. It’s one they offer to another girl, another foster mother, another family. It’s one that shifts and grows—one experience at a time.
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