CASA Volunteer Spotlight:
When Life's Paths Cross
"My husband Tony and I had a difficult time conceiving children," began CASA
volunteer Joyce Tesoriero. "As we did the soul searching that inevitable
accompanies infertility, we realized that what was important to us was having a
family and having children in our lives. We trained to become foster parents
because we realized how many children there are who are not babies anymore
but still in dire need of parents and a loving home. Shortly after we completed
our training to become foster parents, we were surprised to find out that we
were expecting a child."
Living in Maryland at the time, the Tesorieros welcomed foster children into their home for the first time when Jessie was 4 years old. It was an emergency placement of a sibling group that was supposed to include two children. "But when they appeared at our door, there were three," recalls Tesoriero. "The children's mother had left them alone for several days, putting the eleven year old in charge of his 5-year-old sister and 3-year-old brother."
These children eventually transitioned to a home closer to their biological family since the goal was to reunite them with their biological mother. The Tesoriero's next placement was a 15-year-old boy. "He remained with us throughout high school, is now in his mid-30s and is an important member of our family," she said. "We are very proud of him. He suffered from a very difficult family environment in his early years and had lived in many different homes with many different relatives, but he was still able to turn his life around."
Over the years the Tesorieros have had several other teens living in their home, and they adopted a teen-age girl who had suffered severe abuse. "Then, 17 years ago we had twin baby boys placed with us. David and Daniel were supposed to be reunified with their birth parents, but when this couldn't happen, we were able to adopt them," Tesoriero says. Today those babies will be high school seniors next fall, and the Tesorieros cannot imagine their lives or their family without them.
As someone who has experienced being a biological parent, a foster parent, and an adoptive parent herself, Tesoriero calls upon her unique set of experiences as she approaches each new case.
"As a child moves from one foster home to another or from a foster home to a residential facility and the workers change, the CASA stays with the child and can be one of the few consistent people in the child's life," says Tesoriero. "A CASA can really focus on the needs of the child and spend time with a child when an overworked case worker would not be able to devote that much time to one case."
As she enjoys her third year as a Court Appointed Special Advocate and looks back on her rewarding experiences as a foster mom, Tesoriero is in the perfect position to give advice to anyone considering getting involved in the foster care program.
"Every child deserves to be loved and supported," she said. "Children born or raised with abuse and neglect often lack these basic entitlements. Caring foster parents and CASA volunteers can help reshape the world for a child. There is no greater gift we can give than changing the course of a child's life for the better."
