A family’s love: Foster babies find a home in Kent

The call can come at any time so even though their own kids are past the diaper-and-bottle phase, the garage at the Ury home is permanently stocked with baby clothing and toys.

A baby needs a 24-hour placement in a foster home, a place to be safe and protected while a permanent home is found.

For the past six years, the Urys’ home in Kent has been one of those safe places. In as few as two days, the family is ready for its new guest.

“We’re that interim home,” Tina Ury says of the foster babies for whom they have cared. “We just love them one day at a time.”

Today, the Ury home is once again filled with the sounds of children, not only their own four kids – two biological and two adopted – but of a beautiful little girl who has been with them for a lot longer than the initial 24 hours. For privacy purposes, she doesn’t have a name in this story.

“The 24 hours has lasted seven months,” Tina says with a big smile, adding “If we had to order a baby, she’d be perfect.”

The baby currently crawling around the Urys’ living room is the 13th foster child the family has taken in over the past six years and the 15th if you count the family’s two adopted girls.

But since that first experience with a foster child, the Urys realized how much of a need was out there and what they could do and they have never looked back.

“We just know if you take one child at a time – it’s one life at a time – you can make a difference,” Tina says.

The Urys’ story as foster parents begins after the birth of their second biological child. Tina’s pregnancy was high risk and doctors warned her about trying it again.

“They strongly recommended I didn’t have any more children,” she says.

But she and her husband Colin wanted more kids and since Colin himself – and his father – were both adopted, the couple begin to explore the option of fostering to adopt, raising a foster child with the idea of someday adopting.

The Urys took two more babies into their home, both special-needs children impacted by drugs, and began to raise them as their own, adopting the two girls – Amanda, 7, and Hannah, 6 – both bright, happy children.

While the girls were still young, the Urys got a phone call about being a foster family to a pair of brothers. The siblings were the same age as the Ury’s own kids, but the trauma they previously had experienced made taking in the pair one of the most difficult experiences of their lives, Tina says.

“When we got them they were angry and hurt and scared,” Tina says. “It’s hard on our part, but we know it’s for the betterment of the child.”

But the family soldiered through and the boys eventually began to relax and trust the Urys.

After the children were placed in another home several years ago, the Urys, who never intended to be foster parents after they adopted their two girls, recognized the “massive need” and began to open their home to more foster children.

“At this point we realized this is such a big calling,” Tina says. “We just knew we could take care of the special needs these babies have.”

Since then, the family has worked with Olive Crest, a Bellevue agency that helps place foster children. The Urys mostly take in babies, and a frame in their foyer filled with all their pictures – not to mention the piles of photo albums – are a testament to the love and warmth the family offers.

Today, with their own boys growing up, the Ury home runs like a well-oiled machine with Nate, 13, and Austin, 11, pitching in every chance they get and the kids have no problems sharing their homes or their parents.

“It’s not normal to NOT share our parents,” says Nate.

“It’s kind of weird when we don’t have a foster kid,” adds Austin with a shrug. “They become family so it’s like another sister.”

“We do this as a family,” Tina says. “We incorporate every child who comes into the home in the decision-making process.”

While there are difficulties in raising a foster child, Tina says the hardest part is sometimes returning the children or releasing them to a permanent family.

“Because we love these children like they’re our own, we mourn,” Tina said of having to give them up, but said they consider their time with the babies a “gift” and stay in contact with many of the kids and their new families.

The Urys also look to their Christian faith, which Tina said helped lead them to open their home.

“The lord absolutely led us to adoption and fostering,” she said, adding that the Bible says to take care of orphans and widows. “It’s a no-brainer for us.”

And while there can be difficult time, the rewards are “countless,” according to Tina.

“You can’t measure them,” Tina says. “You can’t put a dollar value on them.”

To Tina, the best reward is seeing the transition for a scared and physically stressed child when they arrive to a more relaxed child who “can love and be loved.”

“The reward is in the process,” she says. “It’s such a blessing.”

With about 10,000 children in Washington alone in need of foster homes, the Urys say it is not only worth it to them, but they hope more people will consider opening their homes to foster children.

“You just take one child in at a time,” she says. “We need more help.

“It’s worth it,” she says, hugging her foster baby close. “It’s worth it.”

For more information about raising foster children, visit www.fosteringtogether.org.