Coffey family named Texas Therapeutic
Foster Family of the Year

Leander, TX - With 11 children, every day is laundry day in the Coffey house.

"We do about four loads a day," Brenda Coffey said.

On top of 96 loads of laundry each month, there are the 48 rolls of toilet paper, $1,200 in groceries, presents for Christmas, candy at Easter, and at least one birthday every month of the year.

"It sounds like a lot, but in a house with 13 people, it just works out that way." Brenda said.

Members of the Coffey family, the 2006 Texas Therapeutic Foster Family of the Year.

It is that sense of resolute calm that sets Brenda and her husband Jim apart

from the crowd, and is one of the reasons why the Coffey's were named Texas Therapeutic Foster Family of the Year for 2006 by the Texas Foster Family Association.

Amanda Heitmuller, Austin-area director of family services for Lutheran Social Services of the South, nominated the Coffeys for the award. Her partnership with the Coffey's over the past four years has been a privilege.

"Their jobs are the most difficult anyone could ever do and yet they make it look effortless," Heitmuller said. "Their hearts are still like a child's and they have fun with the children."

The Coffeys have also been nominated for the National Therapeutic Foster Family of the Year. The award will be announced at the National Foster Parent Association Awards Luncheon May 25 in Washington, D.C.

The Coffeys originally became foster parents to adopt Davin, still a toddler, after his mother was killed in a car accident. Davin, had been in the car at the time of the accident and required intensive therapy and rehabilitation. Brenda, a Certified Nurse's Aide at the time and already a mother of three, chose to leave her job to provide Davin with the full-time care he needed. The process of fostering to adopt took two years. In 2001 the final papers were signed.

"But none of that mattered," Brenda said. "What mattered was that we wanted to have him."

Adopting Davin started the ball rolling for the next six years of adoption and foster care. "In May 2001, we received another call about a child in need. Since then, we've never said no." Jim said.

Jim and Brenda have fostered 42 children over the past 6 years. In addition to Davin, now 6, they adopted Angel, a teenager, to their permanent family. Their house has expanded from a modest three-bedroom home into a seven-bedroom, three-bath household to accommodate up to seven foster children at a time. They are fostering six children, ages six months to 17 years. Their hearts and home are open to any child in need, regardless of race or physical conditions.

"We don't want to know if they're black, white or Hispanic," said Jim, a security officer with Dell Computers in Austin. "Why should we care? Some of them come to us with severe medical needs, some with horror stories of their very young lives - and you just can't turn them away."

Brenda and Jim have only a few guidelines for the foster children under their roof.

"We don't allow any of the kids to endanger themselves or others while they're here, and if they are unhappy with being with us, they don't have to stay," Jim said.

Many of the children who have come to stay still keep in touch. "I get phone calls about graduations and letters telling us how they're doing, and they still call us Mom and Dad, which is just great," Brenda said. "We still think of them as our kids, and they should always think of us as someone."

Both Brenda and Jim feel honored by the Therapeutic Foster Family Award, "It's nice to be recognized, but we'd do it, regardless," Jim said.

Brenda singled out her silent partners in foster care: her children. "They should make an award for the biological and adopted children of foster parents," Brenda said. "They give up their space and their time, and they've never complained, not once."

"We always ask, 'Do you want to continue taking foster kids?' and they always say 'yes,'" Jim said. "They know what we're doing here, and they know how important it is, too."

"There are all sorts of kids who need a home, but so few families stepping forward to help," Jim said. "So many people think there's a catch, or that the house becomes chaos with so many children, but that's not the case, at least not with our family."

There is no average stay in the Coffey house. "We've had kids for a few days and we've had others who have stayed for years," Brenda said.

"That's the only real hard part of the process - the leaving," Jim added. "But we're helping them through the hardest part of their lives, and there's no substitute for a family."

The need for foster parents is constant. For more information on how to become a foster parent, call 1-800-396-4611, or log on to http://www.LSSS.org.

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