"What is my self-care plan? These kids. Making sure these kids feel safe, feel wanted, and feel loved. And if I get a hug at the end of the day, that means more to me than anything else." - Ina Schleicher

What constitutes as a perfect and all around amazing foster family is exactly what Ina and Chip Schleicher do everyday for the kids in our Foster Care Program. Their efforts to make the children feel loved and like they matter is a great example of how every foster parent should be. They are both extremely nurturing and are always open to bringing in new children to their home, while maintaining a great relationship with birth parents.

The Schleicher couple have been foster parents for a few years now and treat foster children like they are their own. They are constantly doing different activities with the children in the community and help them all accomplish their goals. Ina is always looking for new ways to improve her training to become a better foster parent than she already is. When asked to be surveyed by The Joint Commission, they jumped right up and immediately changed their camping trip plans to help us out. Not only do they make a better life for our kids, but they create a great work environment for our staff. They are focused on learning new things and never give up on our foster children and are truly a blessing to our program.

Because the great foster parents that they are, Foster Family Specialist, Barb McKernan decided to give them an HGS swag gift bag full of goodies to show our appreciation for them. When given the basket, Ina was very pleased and felt appreciated, although she just feels that she is doing her job as part of the team. They are amazing people and we love having them as a part of HGS. When we asked a staff member to talk about these two parents, they said, "Oh I could talk all day about this family, they are the bee's knees!"

"They are always going above and beyond putting the children's needs above their own and are very well deserving!" - Jamie Andrews