The Foster Parents Also Need Care

For a couple that wanted a lot of children, Lyle and Karen Templeton almost had none.

They had met in high school in Iowa, and married in 1968. But a few months later, Lyle Templeton was drafted by the Army and sent to Vietnam, where he was seriously wounded.

Six bullets passed through his body, and it took five years in hospitals and physical therapy to recover.

As soon as he left his last hospital, the young couple began having children--four babies in five years. When medical concerns about Karen Templeton prevented her from having more children, they decided to try to help others.

In 1986, they visited Orangewood Children’s Home, a temporary county housing unit for abused and neglected children and those with medical or psychological needs that their families can’t handle.

“We saw all these little kids asking, ‘Will you be my mommy?’ ” Karen Templeton said. “That got me.”

At first, they took in one child or two siblings. But as their own children left home and they became more experienced with foster children, they started accepting more. In 13 years, some three dozen children have passed through their home.

“We saw a need and we love kids,” Karen Templeton said.

Currently, they have two sisters, a brother and a sister, another boy and another girl--all with special needs from physical and speech disorders to autism and Down’s syndrome.

The family’s schedule is filled from dawn to dusk with medical appointments, counseling, adaptive physical education, court-ordered monitored visitations with biological parents and more.

Then there’s the fun stuff: Saturday is family activity day, where the clan may have a picnic or visit a zoo. Sunday means church, followed by lunch and an afternoon at a local park.

“On an everyday basis, we have to try to keep everybody happy while running this maze of government agencies, school, medical things, play-art therapy,” Karen Templeton said. “We also have to help them bond and learn to attach to someone appropriately.”

From handling all the government-mandated duties to just having fun with the children, the Templetons, of Santa Ana, become enmeshed with each child’s life. So when their temporary wards get “forever families” or are reunited with their biological parents, the parting is difficult.

“We’ve cried by a bed all night long, when they were leaving the next morning,” Karen Templeton said. “I’ve said, ‘I can’t do this anymore.’ ”

For the Templetons’ 25th wedding anniversary, their grown children created a video. Nearly every frame, from when they were high school sweethearts baby-sitting neighbors’ children to their present day role, involved youngsters.

“Our whole life was kids and we didn’t even realize it,” Karen Templeton said. “The kids keep us young.”