Long-time foster mother prepared for the good as well as the bad

Linda Robinson of Port Royal first became a foster parent more than two decades ago. Though she and her husband, Henry, have taken in more than 120 children since, Robinson said her first fostering experience "happened by chance."

A 16-year-old boy, then only an acquaintance at church with whom she exchanged an occasional casual "hello," asked Robinson if he could move in with her family. On that Sunday in 1984, the boy told her he'd been having problems with his adoptive parents.

Robinson didn't know what to make of the request.

"Sometimes kids just say things to say things," she remembered telling herself. When the boy called her again to ask the same question that night, Robinson told him to talk things through with his parents and with someone at church.

On Monday, the boy showed up at Robinson's house. She promptly took him back home.

She didn't hear from him Tuesday.

On Wednesday, he was waiting on her porch when she arrived home. This time, he had two black trash bags filled with his clothes.

She knew then she couldn't turn him away.

Robinson completed the paperwork and got the necessary home inspections to become an official foster parent. The boy, who'd been abused in his former home, eventually became a part of the Robinson family, living with them until he became a young man. He still drops by from time to time and calls every other week.

Soon after she enrolled to become a foster parent, Robinson began to receive regular calls to take in more children.

"The need was great then and the need is great now," she said.

During a recent Bluffton Town Council meeting, Keith Davis, director of the Beaufort County Department of Social Services, said the need for foster parents is especially great south of the Broad River. Only about a third -- 11 of 30 -- licensed foster homes in the county are located south of the river, he said in an e-mail this week. He is unsure of the reason for the disparity.

Children must sometimes be removed from abusive homes on Hilton Head Island or in Bluffton. But if there aren't nearby families to take them in, those children must be sent to the northern part of the county -- and resume their studies at new schools, Davis said. Sometimes, siblings must be split up and sent to opposite sides of the county, he said. Both developments can mean further trauma for children already under stress.

"Even if it's only temporary, it's a disruption to that child's life," Davis said. "And it comes at a time they don't need another disruption. We want to try to limit the number of changes for the child."

Beaufort County DSS currently has 56 children in legal custody.

The number of children entering the system each month is about on pace with last year, according to county data. But Davis said he worries that as the economy continues to struggle, and more people turn to drugs and alcohol to cope, there could be a rapid rise in the number of children who must be placed in foster care. There also generally seems to be a spike in the number of children entering the system in the summer, when school is out, he said.

Linda and Henry Robinson, respectively treasurer and president of the Beaufort County Foster Parent Association, have been recruiting prospective parents. They've sent brochures to churches and have spoken at community gatherings.

The Robinsons -- who have taken in children of all ages, including teenage mothers and their babies -- host foster children for time frames ranging from days to years. Though she and her husband are devoted to the responsibility, they know the job isn't for everyone.

"Be prepared to take the good with the bad. Parenting is not easy, and it's something you've got to work at," Robinson said. "Most of them are good children. You just have to work with them."

While the job is sometimes tough, it's also rewarding, she said.

"There's nothing like watching them walk across a stage at graduation. Or starting a career and getting married. Or holding their first-born child," she said.

"... We don't call them 'foster children.' They're our children."