WEXFORD COUNTY, MI – When Stephanie Park officially became a foster parent in 2004, it took less than a day for her to get her first placement.

“We have three kids that need somebody right now,” she remembers the caseworker telling her.

So, that night, Park went to Walmart and got everything that she’d need to welcome a 4-year-old, a 1-year-old and a newborn into her home.

Park and her husband, Rod, initially struggled to connect with the kids - Tim, 4, had underdeveloped social skills because of the environment he’d grown up in, she said. Rebecca, at a year old, was wearing clothes sized for three to six-month-olds and didn’t like to be touched. And newborn Kimmy was malnourished, “to a scary extent,” Park said.

Once the kids were in the Parks’ care, they were able to visit their birt

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