LIMA — Lisa has opened her doors to more than 100 foster children in the last 20 years, but in doing so, the single mother has been strained financially and cannot afford a larger home for the many children she helps.
“I need another house bad,” Lisa said. “This particular house was built in the early 1900s. It has no closets, so the kids have to stack their totes in their bedrooms. It’s very, very cramped, to the point where I get claustrophobic. We only have one bathroom. We basically have to do everything in shifts.”
Lisa has six children — three she adopted and three more who are foster children — though the number of foster children she takes care of fluctuates constantly.
“Some stay a day, some stay a week. My longest stay has been five years,” she said.
Though she receives a stipend for each child through Allen County Children Services, the money is only enough to pay for bills, medical visits and groceries. She said she has been out of work for the last seven years because she has to take care of the younger children in her home.
“I do want to go back to work, I just can’t right now,” she said.
Lisa said she does not need much, just her children and a slightly larger house to ensure their comfort. Though she can’t afford it, one more thing she would like is the ability to provide her children with Christmas presents.
“Kids always look forward to Christmas, and if they go back to school and have to tell their friends they didn’t get anything, it makes them feel really bad,” she said. “It’s very important for them to have a nice Christmas.”
Despite her financial issues, Lisa plans to keep adopting foster children as long as she can provide for them sufficiently.
“I believe everybody needs a home, and it breaks my heart that there are so many kids without parents,” she said. “I just have so much love in my heart, so I feel like I need to step up to the plate and help these kids out whenever I can.”
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