This foster mom goes above and beyond for the little boy in her home
It’s national Foster Care Month and Mother’s Day weekend – the perfect time to introduce you to one of our fabulous foster moms.
Meet Laura Erdman. She’s a single mom who works in engineering at GE. She became a foster parent in 2017 and adopted her first placement the following year. Her daughter is now almost 7 and thriving.
Her current placement is a little boy who just turned 2. It’s for him that she goes well beyond what she has to do as a foster parent.
She makes up missed visits with his biological parents, meets at parks and always makes sure to notify his biological parents about medical appointments so they can attend. She makes extra time around holidays and regularly sends updates so all the parties are aware of what’s going on. She added FaceTime visits in addition to the in-person ones.
“Overall, she’s just super supportive,” said her caseworker, Samantha Schiffman.
Erdman says she does all these things simply because it’s best for the little boy.
“None of the parents are really bad people. They just didn’t have the advantages growing up that I did. They didn’t choose this.”
It can be difficult for some foster parents to remember that the goal in most foster care situations is reunification if at all possible. Erdman embraces it and wants to help.
The little boy is expected to soon be reunified with his biological father. When that happens, she’ll take a break from fostering. She’s concerned about the impact his departure will have on her daughter, who adores him.
So they’ll step back, take some time to be together and focus on their little family.
“I can’t imagine having my child taken from me,” she said. “So I just want to be all the help I can. For him.”