An Austin-area family that has fostered and adopted children through DePelchin was recently featured on a KVUE news report drawing attention to children and youth who continue to need families to provide them care.
The report put a spotlight on Dan and Alicia Feldman, a Hutto couple who has fostered children for 10 years. The Feldmans have three children — two of whom they adopted after fostering — and currently provide foster care for an 8-month-old boy who came to them straight from the NICU. “Every morning I ask him, ‘Why are you so cute?'” said Joshua, who is the Feldmans’ oldest child.
While Joshua is the only child who was born to the Feldmans, his two sisters are actually sisters by birth. Sibling groups, as well as older children and those with special needs, are often more difficult to place in foster care. The story reports that, at the end of March, there were nearly 13,000 children in foster care in Texas, with more than 1,700 in Central Texas.
The Feldman family has fostered seven children, and they often take emergency placements, which means they get little notice before they are asked to take a child into their homes. They tend to foster children who are 2 years old or younger.
“Every time you hold a baby, inside their little brain it’s like, ‘Yes, yes, yes, this is what I’m supposed to do. This is what’s supposed to be given to me,’” Alicia Feldman said. “So, we hold all the babies all the time.”
DePelchin Children’s Center continues to look for more foster families to serve children and youth in the Houston, Austin, San Antonio, and Lubbock areas. For more information about becoming a foster family and to learn about upcoming orientations, please visit this page on our website.
We are grateful for the Feldman family and all of those who provide foster care through DePelchin. We look forward to answering your questions about providing foster care for children and youth who need a safe and loving home.
