Thailand Foster Care Transition Homes

At the moment, we are taking a break from new foster care placements to focus on other areas of our work in Thailand but that doesn't mean we have stopped our relationships with our former foster youth. 

Focus, Butsaba and Jay's most recent foster son, is doing well at his new foster home and in his new high school. He is part of a church youth group and plays guitar on Sundays there and is part of the youth leadership team, planning events and activities. He stays in touch with his mom, who has intellectual disabilities, and he sees her weekly at church. Butsaba and Jay's daughter is quite attached to him and vice versa, so they visit him whenever they can. Focus' brother is in a different foster home and they stay in touch via social media. 

Heather's daughter May  was once a foster child but was adopted when she turned 20 last year and was able to sign her own adoption paperwork. (Adoption in Thailand is very different than other countries!) May a junior in college and is about to embark on a year of study abroad with the rest of her junior year classmates who are studying Chinese together. They will all fly out together on September 8 and return to Thailand in July 2026 to finish their senior year at their Thai university. 

Heather's other former foster children are also adults now and are doing a variety of things: one is in her senior year of university, one just started university after taking time post-high school to work, three are college graduates living and working in Bangkok, one is married, and one is doing his compulsory military service. 

Nam, Heather's most recent foster placement and Butsaba and Jay's former foster daughter several years prior, turned 18 in June and decided she wanted to be completely on her own, so we are respecting her wishes and let her know that we are always here to offer support and encouragement but we are letting it be on her own terms and her own timetable. She has an apartment and a job but didn't want to continue her education beyond 10th grade. We are always ready to support her if she decides she wants to return to school in the future. 

Thank you for your support for this program. Thailand does not provide financial support for foster care, so during this time without placements, we are saving the money of those who support this project so that we will have the funding to provide a safe home for our next teenagers and specifically saving for them to have access to counseling, which is about $200 a month per child.