Amazing numbers

• Published May 06, 2008

It's the 20th anniversary of foster care month. At the annual Capitol ceremony honoring some 5,900 foster parents statewide, a couple talked about taking in 1,700 kids over 42 years.

"We have a lot of people come back – 'Do you remember me?'" said Charlene Hubbard. "Oh, Dear. They were seven, eight. Now they’re 30."

Another foster parent, Calvin Watts, took in one boy who had been moved through 34 foster homes.

"He threatened my life, threw my gearshift into park while I was driving, talked about my mother," Watts said. But Watts didn't react, explaining his approach with another story, of a woman who sat in the front row of church and called out enthusiastically during the sermon every Sunday.

One day the preacher asked, why do you always come, when I’ve made so many mistakes over the years? And, Watts said, the woman replied, "When I look up at you and I don’t see God, I look around you."