Parenting the Multitudes: Foster Parents Bring Life to Beaumont Children

By Analiz G. Schremmer

BEAUMONT, Texas – Monica Garrett always dreamed of being a foster group home parent.

“When I accepted this job, I accepted a calling. I know this is what I was called to do. I know this is what I was supposed to do,” she said.

“It is amazing to be able to give a child a home and make them feel loved and secure. I want the kids to feel that they are a part of me.”

Monica and her husband Avery have been foster parents for the past 10 years. But in July, they left their home in Browndell, Texas to be foster group parents for a group of up to 12 children ages 11-15 at Buckner Children’s Village in Beaumont, Texas.

“The hardest thing about doing this was leaving my home, but I love the opportunity to instill some basics of life,” Avery said. “Before getting involved in fostering, I didn’t really know there were so many kids who need a helping hand. If you aren’t involved you just don’t know. And now I’m glad to be a part of the solution.”

Buckner Children’s Village recently shifted its model of care from a residential group care setting to a foster home setting, which helps provide more stability in a child’s life. Instead of rotating shift workers in by the hour, a foster group home is like a family home – two parents and lots of siblings.

Monica said that one of the most rewarding things she experienced as a foster parent was watching a child with special needs learn to clean after himself and wash his own clothes.

“I had a foster child who came by my house once to see me and she said ‘I want you to know that I will always love you and that I will never forget what you’ve done,’” she said.

“That’s what it’s all about. If I can touch only one child and make a difference with him, I know I’ve done my job.”

Sometimes making a difference can be a simple thing, too, she added.

“We try to take the kids out sometimes and give them good memories to keep. There was one kid who had never been to the movies. Another one had never been skating,” she said.

Avery said that there are a few moments he will never forget.

“One time we were at Burger King and I heard someone say, ‘Dad, Dad.’ I thought it was some kid calling his father,” he remembered. “And then I realized it was one of my foster kids talking to me. It was a moment that made it all worth it.”

Before becoming group home parents, Ruby and John Perrault raised two daughters, some grand children, a niece and a nephew. They’d also been foster parents for a while; so living with a crowd of kids was nothing unusual.

“Right now we have eight girls and it can grow up to 12,” said Ruby Perrault, who became a foster group mom after a conversation with Buckner foster home development supervisor Samela Macon.

“I told Samela that I always wanted to be a stay-at-home mom, so she asked if I wanted to be a house parent,” Ruby recalled.

For Ruby, the only hard thing about being a group home parent at Children’s Village was leaving her house. Other than that, she said they love it. Their 16-year-old daughter loves it, to.

“She has taken up leadership with the other girls and sets the example,” Ruby said.

And John, whom the children call Mr. Lee, said he spends a lot of time working. But when he’s home, he makes it a point to spend some time with the teens.

“I am the only father figure a lot of them have,” he said, adding that they try to do activities with them when they can. For example, they try to take them out individually on their birthdays.

Ruby said that one girl told them that she’d never had a father and mother before.

“So having us take her out somewhere on her birthday meant a lot to her,” she said. “We are like family to them. I tell my girls, ‘When you grow up and leave, I want you to know that you can come back and see us. We want you to be a part of our family forever.’

“After these kids move on, I want them to remember that we loved God, that we encouraged them to get an education and I want them to take away what they learned about being clean and organized. All of those things that will help them build better lives.”