Foster parenting is often seen as a calling and a mission of love. At the same time, foster parenting can be both very difficult and exhausting. When caring for children who have suffered abuse, neglect, and traumas, foster parents face their own set of unique challenges each day. The Foster Care Survival Guide is a must have for todays foster parents. It is a guide to surviving the lifestyle of a foster parent filled with personal stories, practical tips and advice, and even humor and emotions, The Foster Care Survival Guide is an essential guide for both novice and experienced foster parents. Leading foster care expert Dr. John DeGarmo combines his own wisdom with that of fellow foster parents. Tackling issues such as helping children with disorders and anxieties, how to best manage the lifestyle of a foster parent, working with birth parents, getting the help you need, addressing your own marriage while caring for children in need, and balancing the needs of your biological children with your foster children, The Foster Care Survival Guide delivers experienced and sympathetic wisdom and advice that every foster parent, advocate, and professional needs today as they care for children in care.
Born in 1969, Dr. John DeGarmo has worn many hats throughout his life. Singing and dancing while touring around the world in the international super group, Up With People, serving as a D.J. at four different radio stations on two different continents, working in the professional wrestling industry, teaching English and Drama at the high school level, and working as a media specialist at two different schools, Dr. DeGarmo has had a variety of experiences.
Dr. John has appeared on several TV programs, including CNN HLN, Good Morning America, ABC Freeform, and NBC, FOX, CBS, PBS stations. He writes regularly for many magazines, and is a regular contributor to several publications, both in the United States and over seas.
Dr. DeGarmo and his wife are the recipients of the Good Morning America Ultimate Hero Award, and the Up With People Every Day Hero Award. The two also were honored with their city's Citizens of the Year Award.
He is the director of The Foster Care Institute, and acts as a consultant to foster care agencies and legal agencies across the USA. Dr. John is a dynamic speaker and informative trainer on the foster care system, and travels extensively across the globe, meeting with foster parents, child welfare workers, churches, schools, and organizations.
Dr. DeGarmo is married to Dr. Kelly DeGarmo, who hails from Australia, and the two of them have six children, both biological and adoptive. Dr. DeGarmo and his wife are also currently foster parents to three siblings, bringing their household to nine children. Dr. DeGarmo has been a foster parent for dozens of children for over a decade now. He has a passion for foster children, and is driven to bring education and insight into general society about all things foster care.
Thorough and brief. It covers the different parts of being a foster parent. As a prospective/aspiring foster parent, it gave me important information about what I am getting myself into and what I want to know more about while I go through this journey.