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Samantha Riebeling-Nunez had hit rock bottom.
She was in jail for assaulting her mom, addicted to crystal meth and, most importantly, she was in danger of permanently losing her two kids, 3-year-old Christian and 2-year-old Isabella.
She recalls thinking, “I don’t want to be this person. I’m a good person. I don’t want to lose my kids. My kids don’t deserve me to give up on them.”
Nadia and Lynn sat on a playground bench together as baby Kassiani slept peacefully in her stroller, seeming to have forgotten the momentary pain of just having her ears pierced a half hour earlier. It was a scheduled visit for Lynn, Kassiani’s biological mother, and Nadia, a foster parent with Angels, joined them.
The first time Nanci Weinstein and Heather Bone met in July 2014, neither of them expected the meeting to go well.
Weinstein and her husband, David, were the court-appointed foster parents for Bone’s daughter, Kristina, who had been removed from her custody shortly after birth when the newborn tested positive for methamphetamine.
I’m so happy that we were given the opportunity to care and get to know you. I thank your parents for bringing a wonderful baby into this world. You are one of the wisest teachers I have. That piece of you and our memories will be remembered as the happiest period of our lives. The lessons you taught me will carry on until I die. I can only thank you for that.
Through Angels Foster Family Network, Susan and Dick Kurtik have changed the lives of many foster children and their families. The retired Encinitas couple has had eight infant placements over nine years, and as much as being a resource family has made a difference for vulnerable and innocent foster babies, it has made a difference in their lives too, becoming parents for the first time as seniors.