OXNARD : Foster Parents, Kids Share Holiday Cheer

Marcia Fischer can’t remember how many foster children have come through her Port Hueneme home.

“I’ve lost track,” she said. “I think I’ve had about 10.”

The children have ranged from newborns to 14-year-olds and their stays with her have ranged from one day to eight years.

Throughout her career as a foster parent, Fischer said, she’s benefited from getting together with other foster parents at gatherings such as the ninth annual Christmas party for Ventura County foster families, held Sunday at the Oxnard Elks Lodge.

After lunch, more than 200 children and adults enjoyed live entertainment, including a magician and clown, and a visit from Santa Claus.

But Fischer said the highlight of the party was seeing other parents like her. “It’s wonderful,” she said. “It’s really beneficial to get together with other foster parents just to share and to know you’re all going through the same thing.”

A teacher at a Port Hueneme private school, Fischer took in her first foster child about nine years ago, a 4-year-old named Sarah whom Fischer has since adopted. Sarah was born deaf and with severe neurological damage.

“She had no language when she arrived,” Fischer said. So the two learned American Sign Language together and now sign fluently to each other.

But Fischer, who is single, kept bringing in other foster children. “I like kids,” she said. “I had always wanted dozens.”

Of the 650 Ventura County children in foster homes, most have come from families in which they were physically or sexually abused or seriously neglected, officials from the county’s Children’s Services Division said. In addition to that agency and the Elks Lodge, the party was sponsored by the California Strawberry Festival, the National Charity League Tick Tockers.

Most of the children are removed from their homes by the courts, but one 16-year-old boy at Sunday’s party said he asked to be put in a foster home because he couldn’t get along with his mother’s boyfriend.

For the past two months, he’s lived with a Port Hueneme family who are now trying to become his legal guardians, the boy said. He’s happier now, he said.

And he liked what he saw at the Christmas party. “It feels good,” he said, surveying the room. “They’re getting a home. They’re getting taken care of.”