Letting go can be difficult.
Oftentimes, this is what turns most people away from delving into foster care, and understandably so: Saying goodbye to a beloved member of the family is never easy. There is nothing wrong with growing attached; loving is a selfless act and having an abundance of love for our animal companions is one of the key ingredients to making a foster home feel like home.
Parting ways is an emotional part of the process and is what commonly turns most people away from foster care. However, if that is the only thing deterring us from taking a step into fostering, then perhaps we should reconsider the way we view fostercare as a whole.
FOSTERING VS. ADOPTION
The key difference between fostering and adoption is that fostering is meant to be temporary. Foster parents take in rescues and help nurse them until they are able to find their forever homes. However, that doesn’t make it any less of a big commitment.
WHY DO PEOPLE FOSTER?
Fostering gives our friends the opportunity to ease into a comfortable environment where they could be given proper medical attention and socialize, according to a 2021 article by Arianna Pittman for One Green Planet. All in all, it gives them a safe space where they get to let their true selves shine.
Most of all, fostering opens up rooms in shelters and allows them to save more lives. Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) is always open for volunteers for their foster program. PAWS is willing to provide essentials such as food and veterinary services whenever they could, but as the organization is funded by donations, foster parents may need to shoulder some of those expenses.
GOODBYE AS A BEGINNING
With the difference that you make in many lives, fostering is a rewarding experience. People who go into fostering know that eventually, they will need to say goodbye to the ones they grew to love and care for, but that doesn’t stop them from deriving joy from what they do. Perhaps what some may not understand is that there is a special kind of happiness that comes from watching your foster care flourish into their true and happy selves.
When the time comes for them to go, and they are no longer the same lost soul that first stepped into your home, then you know that your purpose is complete; even then, it doesn’t make them any less yours.
Goodbye is often emotional. Goodbye often means the end of many things: a conversation, a journey, a friend. Goodbyes can leave us saddened or heartbroken, but goodbyes can also mean a promise to see one another again.
Even if it means that from here onward, you might have little chance of crossing paths again, as you see your cherished one off with their new family, maybe goodbye doesn’t always have to mean “The End.” It may be the end of your fostering, but for our companion, “goodbye” just means the start of something new.
In a funny way, the meaning of “hello” and “goodbye” have been reversed. “Hello” is the end of their previous life, and “goodbye” means the beginning. “Goodbye” means hope and love, and a forever that they would never have gotten to if it weren’t for you.
It will be sad for a while, but knowing the role you played — that you were able to give them what they needed the most — is still a reason to rejoice. And now, in the same way your home completed them, it is their turn to complete another.
