Author Archives: Alicia McCormick

It has been over two years since I published anything on this blog. In those years, I have started a PhD program (never thought I would be saying those words), welcomed countless more babies into my home and heart, gotten through Covid, and now find myself with a medically complex baby whose case is headingContinue reading “Into the Unknown – Part 2”

If you now have the song sung by a certain snow queen playing in your head, then I apologize. (But not really, since it’s an awesome song to pump you up when you need it.) But that phrase – into the unknown – perfectly describes what this past week has been for me. Monday evening,Continue reading “Into the Unknown”

I’ve posted before about how It Takes a Village to foster, but I have found this especially true as a single mom. As a single parent in a world that seems to be made for anything but single parenthood, I need reminders of my own strength as well as my need to accept help. ThereContinue reading “Fostering While Single”

The last few years, I’ve been lucky enough to be a part of the MOPS group at my church. If you don’t know what MOPS is, it stands for Mothers Of PreschoolerS, but it is really a place for all moms to come together, no matter how old or young the kids are. Each year,Continue reading “Be Strong”

It’s between a month and a half since my last baby left, and I am itching for that next phone call. The phone call that makes my mind go into overdrive and sets my heart racing, where I hear there’s another baby waiting for someone to take them home. The phone call that is bothContinue reading “Waiting in the In Between”

A couple months ago in the middle of the busy Christmas season, I had met up with another foster mom, our babies strapped down in the stroller, walking shoes on, and both of us ready for a time to talk and just be with another woman walking a similar journey. I shared how excited IContinue reading “My Capacity as a Foster Parent”

I’m usually not the person who has a word or new goals for the new year. And if I do, then I like to make sure I have everything decided and an action plan ready to implement at least a week before New Years (so I can tell myself I not only met the deadline,Continue reading “Holding Complexity”

When I think about my grief, it’s hard to explain it to people outside the foster world. It’s hard even to explain it to other foster parents who don’t do emergency placements. Often, it seems impossible to explain to the point that I gloss over my grief and just talk about how much I enjoyContinue reading “Grief As a Foster Parent”

For the last two years, I have had a baby in my care at the end of the year, and it is one of the things that brings me the most joy in the holiday season. Christmas lights and JJ Heller’s Christmas album and decorating trees inside the house and the additional community of friendsContinue reading “Holidays and Foster Care”

There are lot of things that don’t go my was as an ESH mom, and sometimes that reality is really hard to accept. This last week especially has been hard since my last baby left so unexpectedly, and I have been wrestling with what I actually think success is for me as an ESH mom.Continue reading “Success as a Foster Parent”