Do you know May is National Foster Care Month?.

Please welcome guest blogger Kyla Liggett-Creel, who has been a foster mom for four years. Kyla works at University of Maryland, Baltimore's Center for Infant Studies and School of Social Work.

Take it away Kyla.

My husband and I became foster parents by accident. Several years ago, we were intent on adding another child to our family – we have a son – and thought that we would want to adopt a child. As we were doing our research and after we contacted the social workers at the Baltimore County Department of Social Services to see if we would qualify to adopt a child from them, we became intrigued by the option of becoming foster parents.

Being a foster parent isn’t for everybody. Foster parents are just like regular parents, but you don’t have full custody of the child. This may seem disquieting to some, but it was intriguing to us because we realized we could have a positive impact on many more children.

Over the course of 4 years, we have fostered 8 children. They have varied in age and personalities. As a matter of fact, one of our first children was a baby who had a stroke in utero and was born drug addicted. We spent a significant amount of time in the early months taking her to physicians and therapists, but it has all been worth it. After 15 months, she was reunified with her biological family and while she still needs special attention, she has turned into a beautiful young girl.

Under normal circumstances, we would never have a chance to touch lives in the way we have. There are many children – both young and old – who need some one to care for them, even on a temporary basis. My husband and I have been deeply moved by becoming foster parents and we hope others who read this would consider becoming foster parents, too.

For more information, please check out this page.