Foster Parents (Chula Vista, CA)

Maria and Domingo Sanchez are Mexican immigrants who became U.S. citizens in the hopes of building a better life. As their two children grew older, the couple began to think about becoming foster parents as a way of helping other less fortunate youth.

In 2006, Maria received a life-changing call from the staff at Casey Family Programs in San Diego. As a Catholic, she felt the timing of this call was particularly significant as it came on Holy Thursday with the celebration of Easter only days away. The agency staff told Maria that there was an emergency case involving five siblings for which they were seeking temporary shelter. After many calls to other parents, the agency told her that the Sanchez family was "their last hope" for keeping the kids together. Maria remembers:

"We already had our foster parent license and we knew we wanted to help children. But we didn't expect that they would come in bundles of five!"

Maria immediately tried to contact her husband. As a police officer, he typically worked in the field on assignment and was very hard to reach. On that day, however, Domingo answered the phone right away. Maria explained the crisis situation and her husband just laughed and laughed thinking she was joking about the number of children. He agreed to care for all of children, but reminded his wife that she would have to shoulder most of the daily responsibility because of his work schedule.

The children's story was heartbreaking. Prior to living with the Sanchez family, they had been placed in multiple foster homes. Their birth mother was a Mexican citizen who was living in the U.S. illegally. She had seven children, all of whom were born in America, most to different fathers. When the children became wards of the court due to abuse and neglect, the mother became frustrated by the system, and fled to Mexico with the children. Maria says:

"She soon realized that she couldn't provide food, clothing and shelter for the kids. They were living in Tijuana, and one by one, the older children ran away and came back to America and re-entered foster care. The oldest son and his foster parent at the time went back to Mexico to convince the mother to let the younger kids leave, too."

Maria admits that being a foster mother to five was overwhelming at first. Her house was suddenly occupied by three teenagers, and two younger girls ages 11 and 8. She and her husband have provided a stable, nurturing home life these children had never known before. After only a year, two of the children are enrolled in gifted programs at school and one of the older girls is finishing her freshman year at San Diego State University. Maria and Domingo also enrolled the children in a swim club where they have gone from complete beginners to competitive swimmers. Maria adds:

"We hope the children will stay with us until they go to college. Even after that, they will always have a home with our family."