MADISON, AL (WAFF) -
Valerie Cortez has been a certified foster parent since 1997. She's cared for 15 kids since then and said it can be a tough job; she compared it to on the job training.
"The biggest challenge that I've seen and encountered is that once they put a child into your home, it's up to you to figure out what's going on with them," Cortez said. "You have to be a counselor, a psychiatrist, sometimes a nurse just like you would your own kids."
One thing that helps her adjust to the new additions is getting children who are close in age to her 17-year-old and 18-year-old sons. The two boys that Cortez currently has in her home are 16 and 17.
"I didn't want someone coming in with problems that we couldn't diagnose or figure out coming in and be an influence on my children," Cortez said. "So you're always balancing the health and well being of your own children with what a child that's coming into your family needs."
After hearing the news about 9-year-old Katelynn Arnold, who was allegedly hung by her half-brother in a foster home, Cortez said she could see how something so tragic could happen.
"We may never know why it happened just like we don't know anything, but these kids come into foster care already dealing with grief, abandonment and the distraction of change. That environment just adds to it," she said.
Cortez said whenever she's contacted about getting another foster child she asks a lot of questions.
"There are just so many things that you don't know," she said. "I ask how old the child is, if they have brothers or sisters, how many times they have moved. That gives me some insight on what we may be dealing with."
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