Guest Blog: A Forever Family Unlocks the “Warm Fuzzies”

Dee Marks is an adoptive mother living in Columbus, Ohio. She is an advocate for foster care adoption and autism awareness.

Family. Love. Comfort. Connection. HOME. Each of these words fill our hearts with warm fuzzies, but what about those who don’t have any positive lasting experiences with any of those same words? What would that feel like? It’s hard to even imagine a world where that would be the case…but for many kids, it IS the case. Foster care provides a safe place for these children to put their head down at night, and yet, all parties involved know that it is only a temporary arrangement. The child is scared and always on alert because what is here today, could literally be gone tomorrow. For one second, think about all that you have; all of the blessings big and small that surround you, are a part of who you are and balance your sense of belonging.

For my son, who was a toddler upon entering the foster care system, it was devastating to not have these anchors in his life. He was diagnosed with autism when he was very young; a condition that already separated him from the world that surrounded him…read the full blog here.

The Wendy’s Wonderful Kids program is the signature child-focused recruitment model of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption is a national nonprofit public charity dedicated exclusively to finding permanent homes for the more than 130,000 children waiting in North America’s foster care systems. Created by Wendy’s® founder Dave Thomas who was adopted, the Foundation implements evidence-based, results-driven national service programs, foster care adoption awareness campaigns and innovative grantmaking. To learn more, visit davethomasfoundation.org or call 1-800-ASK-DTFA