Note: Lucretia Gamble’s story is part of Palmetto GBA’s Fostering Hope campaign to support children as they make the difficult transition into foster care.

It starts with a phone call. Foster parents receive the call - a call that can come any time of day or night - from a social worker asking if they can take in a child or children in need of a home.

Lucretia Gamble and her husband have three daughters and one son of their own, and in 2009 they decided to become foster parents.

“We thought it’d be good to have someone for our son to play with, and we were done having children,” Lucretia said. “And there are a lot of kids out there who need homes. We thought, ‘We can open up our home to these children who don’t have anybody.’”

The Gambles received a call asking them to take in a brother and sister, a 3-year-old boy and a 20-month-old girl.

“When DSS brought them to our home, we felt so sad for them,” Lucretia said. “The little girl came in just a diaper and a T-shirt and shoes that were too big. The little boy was in clothes that were too small for him.”

The children had grocery bags with the few belongings they were provided by the Department of Social Services.

“They came to us with a grocery bag with clothes in it. And I felt like that’s not a way to introduce kids to the foster system,” Lucretia said.

Her hope is that more people recognize the need children face during that first transition into foster care. Children are often removed from their homes and placed in foster care with just the clothes on their backs. Foster families don’t know what the children will arrive with or even what size clothing they need until they arrive at their homes. Though foster parents receive a stipend for each child they take in, they often do not receive funds for the children until a month or two after the children have been placed with them.

“Give them something that they can say, ‘This is mine.’ They need clothes that fit them because they take them out of their home just as they are. And whatever clothes DSS has that have been donated, that’s what they give them,” Lucretia said.

The Gambles provided a loving and supportive home to their foster children for several years before the children were adopted by other families.

“It is very rewarding knowing that you’re doing something, helping someone who can’t help themselves,” she said.