Jamie Lozier knew her foster daughter struggled with picky eating and wouldn’t like the dinner she’d prepared. Still, Jamie encouraged her to try the meal.
“Her and I sat at a separate table, and I said, If you eat this, and at least try it, then I’ll make you a bowl of chili. And so, she ate it. I told her I was really proud of her,” recalls Lozier, who then made the child chili. “I was folding laundry, and she came to me with a thank you note.”
Moments like this stick with Jamie — a mother to nine kids, including two children in foster care and seven forever children, including adopted and biological kids. She and her husband, Dustin, always knew they wanted a big family. So, after they had their two biological sons, they decided to look into adoption.
“My father was adopted, my grandmother was adopted, so there’s a history of adoption in our family,” Jamie says. “We wanted to adopt the kids who needed us the most. And so that took us down the foster care route.”
Jamie and Dustin went straight to Summit County Children Services to begin their fostering journey. After taking pre-service training classes, the Loziers went through the home study process, which includes inspections of the home and interviews with family members. Finally, they obtained their license and had their first placement in 2017.
“I was actually in the kitchen when we got the call, and my boys were so excited because our first placement was two little girls,” Jamie says. “They danced around the kitchen and were so excited that there was going to be two little sisters, one for each of them.”
SCCS Foster Home Coordinator Amy Peresta has been working with the Lozier family for a little more than a year, providing ongoing support. “The Loziers are incredibly amazing people,” she shared via email. “They are a large, loving family and lead a very busy life. But Mr. and Mrs. Lozier wouldn’t have it any other way. They are truly the epitome of what ‘being present’ in a child’s life is all about.”
For the Loziers, the end goal is always reunification.
“We have been blessed to grow our family through adoption as well through our fostering journey, but not every child stays,” Jamie says. “There’s some situations where reunification feels so natural. And we’ve developed bonds with the biological families to where it doesn’t feel like a loss. It just feels like our family grew to include their biological family.”
Fostering has taught Jamie to go with the flow and to adapt her parenting strategies for each child.
“Kids are messy. They’re fun,” Lozier says. “And even through our fostering journey, watching our own biological kids and our adopted kids grow through fostering and helping other children, it’s taught them so much, and it’s been a very bonding experience for our family.”
For the Loziers, fostering has been rewarding. They’ve experienced first smiles and first laughs, taught kids to ride bikes and more. "Watching our children grow and get involved" has been amazing, Jamie says.
“The things that hinder people from considering to foster are things in their own minds,” she says. “The kids just need somebody to listen to them after a visit or to sit down with them and tell them that they love them and they’re proud of them. It’s not big, grand gestures that they need. They need somebody to be present.”
