We had many hours of training to be foster parents for a year, and were reimbursed our expenses by the county, so I jokingly say we were professional parents. We have witnessed the effects of very bad parenting first hand, and learned many different ways to reverse those effects, often with professional guidance. We've parented a wide gamut of children. Some of our foster children were of a different ethnicity than us. Our oldest daughter has cerebral palsy, we adopted our son, and our youngest was a surprise baby after thinking we couldn't have children without fertility treatments. After she was born our plate was too full to continue fostering, but we are grateful for the experience, and I hope to be able to pass on some of what we have learned on this site. In a few years when we have teens I expect you all to return the favor.