3 days ago
North Texas family helps to raise 62 foster children in 10 years
The Brief
Sandy and Win Heinrich, along with their three biological children, helped to raise 62 babies in foster care.
They have a wall of photos featuring all of their foster children, along with baby books that document each child's time with the family.
The couple encourages other families to get involved with fostering, which they say they got so much more out of than they gave.
FORT WORTH, Texas - A Fort Worth family that has opened its home to 62 foster children over the years is being recognized during National Foster Care Awareness Month.
The backstory
Sandy and Win Heinrich have been parents to 62 foster children.
The couple has three biological children of their own. But in 1987, they took in their first newborn, who they still keep in touch with.
"We had seen a baptism at our church and there was a couple that was just beaming. And we met them afterwards when we were congratulating the family. And they were foster parents," Sandy said.
That moment gave birth to a decade of fostering.
"We decided God was touching our hearts to do something with our children and not wait," she said.
"You can look at it easier after the fact, but we knew we wanted to do ministry, as she said, and this was a ministry we did for ten years and loved it," Win added.
The Heinrich's fostered newborns from about 36 hours old to keeping some as long as six months before they were adopted.
Sandy created a book for each child she mothered about their beginnings.
"And it started from the moment I brought the baby home from the hospital to placement day," she said.
"There's a daily log that she wrote out. What's something special that happened that day. It may have been one of our kids holding the baby, cherishing it to going to Easter Sunday or whatever it may be that was special," Win said.
The couple and their three children made it their mission to give each newborn a loving start in life.
"It was important for us because this was a major part of our life with our family. It was a family ministry and our children were so involved. They've grown from doing this," Sandy said.
What you can do
The Heinrich's now call the Stevenson Oaks Senior Living Center their home.
While the sounds of crying babies are gone, the love they felt is still part of their home in a wall of family portraits.
For National Foster Care Awareness Month, they're encouraging others to become foster parents so that they may experience the same joy they did.
"We never knew how it would touch our lives either, because we got back so much more than we gave," Sandy said.
The Source
FOX 4's Shaun Rabb gathered information for this story by interviewing Sandy and Win Heinrich.
