When a child is removed from their home for their own safety and placed with foster parents, everything they’ve known is disrupted. They have new rooms, live with new adults with new routines, and might attend a new school.

Change can be good for the youths and their new foster parents. For Jack and Gwyn, a married couple from Star, Idaho, instilling a routine with their foster children was paramount to their success. (Follow this link to view a video where Jack and Gwyn share about their experience.)

Bedtimes, mealtimes, consistency, and routine brought a steadiness to the three children they foster. Jack and Gwyn don’t treat their foster kids any different than they treated their older children who have left the house, or their 11-year-old daughter at home. In fact, their 11-year-old was the one who suggested Gwyn and Jack apply to be foster parents.

She begged her parents to have a baby themselves, but after they listened to a presentation at their church about the need for more foster parents in Idaho, they initiated the paperwork. They became foster parents in March 2024.

The children in Jack and Gwyn’s care are part of a larger biological family. They are three of six siblings, who still get to visit their parents and brothers and sisters, but most of their time is spent under the steady guidance of Jack and Gwyn.

“All kids at the end of the day are kids, and they all need love, and they all need support,” Gwyn said. “We have learned a lot about kids and different backgrounds, but we find that—just—they're just kids, and it's simple.”

It’s important to Jack and Gwyn that they make the children feel safe—one of the keys to the foster system working. They said the children feel grief and loss and go through periods of stress after visits with their siblings or parents. He said he and Gwyn respond by giving space, a steady routine, and safety. Those basics are required, but the extras—the caring, nurturing, teaching—make foster parenting successful.

Jack and Gwyn had fears: How would the foster children get along with their daughter? “What if they miss their family so much we can’t help them?” They worked through it, listened to them, and kept their bellies full and their rooms clean.

Foster children live chaotic lives, but they can feel the calm of safety in the right home, Jack and Gwyn agreed. They watched the three children change in their care, saw them start to find happiness. The children now share their feelings and offer hugs when they get up in the morning.

Not every family in Idaho has the space or the means to take in an extra child with a complicated background, but the people who do are rewarded in miraculous ways. They find new strength, new love, and they share it.

“Please, don’t hesitate,” Jack said. “Treat them like you treat your own, and it makes life a lot easier.”

If you’ve ever considered fostering, know that your willingness to offer a home—even for one child for one season—can change a child’s life forever. For more information, call 2-1-1 or visit the Department of Health and Welfare’s foster care page. You could be the difference that turns a story of struggle into one of hope and belonging.

The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare is dedicated to strengthening the health, safety, and independence of Idahoans. Learn more at healthandwelfare.idaho.gov.