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Get to Know Valerie

• Favorite hobbies: Traveling with my husband, reading when I can, enjoying my grandkids
• Favorite quote: Seek peace and pursue it. Psalm 34:14
• What do they like best about their role as a Kinship Leader: Sharing my experiences and knowledge of being a KIN Provider.
• Personal experience with Kinship care: I have been a kinship provider for three of our nephews for the past 18 years.  When my husband and I started on this journey we never really thought they would be with us as long as they were.  We both believe strongly in keeping families together and back with their birth parents when possible.  Sometimes things don’t work out as you planned.  The last 18 years have not been easy, but it has been interesting.  Blending other children, even if your own children have always known them and spent time with them, into a family is not always an easy task.  Now I have six great kids who are on the path to adulthood or already there.  They have far exceeded where I thought they would be.  My home will forever be their home and that is fine with me.  Kinship care doesn’t end when they age out.  It is a lifetime commitment, and we are glad we made it.