April Simington almost became a foster parent back in December. She almost made the cut it in January, then again in mid-February. Finally, in late February, two girls ages 10 and 12 joined the Simingtons' other children, 3-year-old Lucy and 4-year-old Delano.
"I think we ended up with a good fit," the East Ridge resident Thursday while her children played at a local playground. "It worked out."
Foster parents are always needed, and the Simingtons' efforts to find the right match are a good example of the hurdles child welfare advocates face in finding temporary homes for children who have been taken away from their parents.
According to state figures there are about 4,000 foster parents across Tennessee right now and some 7,000 children who need a place to stay. Some local organizations say the shortage is worsening.
"We are in a little bit of a crisis in that we have such a shortage of foster parents, which we have not seen before in the history of the department," said Anna Horne, a foster parent recruiter with the Partnership for Families, Children and Adults in Chattanooga. "We had to turn down 55 children last month, and now those children can be anywhere across the state."
When not enough foster homes are available in one location, children are placed with families farther away, which makes keeping a troubled family together even harder. That could be as far from Chattanooga as Knoxville or Johnson City, Horne said.
"The goal is for the family to be reunited, but every time a kid gets placed farther and farther away, the chances of that happening get less and less," she said.
The problem is particularly difficult for siblings and teenagers, especially young men.
"Placing even a sibling group of three would be a struggle for a local agency," said Sharen Ford, director of adoption and orphan care at Colorado-based Focus on the Family.
"When we think about young men, there is so much happening in the media that betrays the image of young males. So families are like, 'Oh, gosh, is it safe to invite that young man?' But he needs a mom, he needs a dad. There are good kids out there who just need families who are there to support them emotionally and physically, and even spiritually to develop into the young men and women they are meant to be."
Child welfare advocates emphasize that foster parents don't have to take children they believe won't fit into their families. The Simingtons' story is a good example of how that system works.
April Simington and her husband, Lucas, were willing to foster more than one child, but because their own two children are young, they initially said they would take only kids age 8 or younger. After completing their eight weeks of one-night-a-week training and passing their home inspection, they decided to raise their age limit to 14.
Within a month they got a call that two boys ages 11 and 13 needed a home. But the Simingtons were nervous, April said. That seemed awfully old compared to Lucy and Delano.
So they said no.
"A former foster parent said to me, if you get a phone call and you don't instantly say yes, if you hesitate, just wait for the next call," she said. "There will always be a next call."
Two weeks later, another call came, this time for kids ages 5 and 7. The Simingtons said yes, but the Tennessee Department of Children's Services had already found a home for those children.
The third time was even more difficult - an infant with a 9-year-old sibling, who caseworkers said was on the low end of the autism spectrum and able to function in a classroom. The children moved in, but within a couple of days, April said, she realized the 9-year-old had more problems than they had anticipated.
"She was severely ADHD [attention deficit hyperactivity disorder] and with autism and very highly in need of special education classes."
The child needed supervision 24/7, she said, so she called her caseworker.
"I said 'I don't know what I'm doing and I'm not sure we're the right fit, I don't have any training for this,'" she said.
Fortunately, a couple with experience in caring for special-needs children was willing to take over. By coincidence they had been on the verge of accepting two girls, ages 10 and 12, who had no special needs.
"We ended up doing a foster swap - they took the girl and her baby brother and we took the two girls that were scheduled to go into their home," April said. "We had turned down 11 and 13, and now we were taking in 10 and 12. Life is just funny sometimes."
This time, the placement seems to be a good fit. The older girls love being big sisters to Lucy and Delano.
"These girls help out with these two so much, they adore these two," April said, pointing to her children. "They love to read to them at night or get them into their pajamas or take them out to play. They love taking charge."
The foster girls' birth mother also has been easy to deal with, she said.
"I've met Mom. Mom is very nice, she's not angry at us, she's excited," she said. "I text Mom photos of the girls, I send videos of cooking class and horseback riding. Sometimes birth parents can be mad, they don't want their kids living with you, they are mad their kids were taken away. I'm not saying she is not upset, but she doesn't take things out on us at all."
That doesn't mean everything is perfect. The 10-year-old in particular misses her mom constantly.
"To her, her mom hangs the moon," April said. "I hope her mom always hangs the moon for her. I don't want her to ever not think she does."
But it is hard for April when the 10-year-old asks when she can go back home.
"You are trying everything you can do to make it better and it just doesn't make it better, not really better," she said. "You are a Band-Aid because you are not Mom. It is really hard to not be able to fix things and make life amazing - because you're not Mom."
Simington realizes the foster girls won't be with her forever.
"They'll end up back with Mom eventually," she said.
And then? "We'll be right back on the list," she said, smiling. "We have a 4- and a 3-year-old, so we will have kids in the house for a long time."
Contact staff writer Steve Johnson at 423-757-6673, sjohnson@timesfreepress.com, on Twitter @stevejohnsonTFP and on Facebook, www.facebook.com/noogahealth.