About a dozen years have passed since Cindy Hornibrook Doucet and her husband Alan took on their first foster placement.
And now, about 25 foster children later, the Bathurst woman doesn’t see herself stopping any time soon.
“These kids just bring love and joy to our home, they make such a positive addition,” she said.
“And if I said it was always roses, it’s not. Some days, my husband and I look at each other at the end of the day, and think ‘phew, that was a day.’
“But it’s not enough to ever say we wouldn’t continue the next day.”
For her many years committed to fostering, Hornibrook Doucet is going to be honoured as the 2024 Erminie Cohen Compassion Award recipient during a ceremony at Government House next month.
The annual award, presented by the New Brunswick Adoption Foundation, named after Erminie Cohen, the foundation’s founding chairperson, who died in 2019.
Hornibrook Doucet said when she first found out she would be receiving the award, she thought about all of the other foster parents who could also be receiving the recognition.
But she said she is honoured to help Cohen’s legacy live on by continuing to help vulnerable children in New Brunswick.
The beginning
Hornibrook Doucet and her husband adopted internationally in 2005, bringing their family of four to a family of five. At that point, they assumed that might be the end, although fostering was always in the back of their minds.
In 2011, they were visiting a friend who was a foster parent and during the car ride home, Hornibrook Doucet’s eight-year-old suggested their family also try it.
That was what got the ball rolling, and a year later, they welcomed their first foster children — a six-month-old and a two-and-a-half-year-old.
Shortly after, they took in the siblings of those children, who were three and four years old.
With eight children in the house, Hornibrook Doucet said there was a lot of laundry and many lunches to pack. But it was worth it.
“I just think we were on a high because we were so happy to have these kids in our home and then they just fit into the machine,” she said. “I don’t know how we did it but we did and then here we are.”
Hornibrook Doucet and her husband, both retired high school teachers, have continued on their fostering journey since those two placements.
Hornibrook Doucet said some of their friends shake their heads, as many recent retirees choose to travel abroad with their new free time, but for her family, the love for the children fulfils them just as much.
“It’s so much more rewarding than it is hard,” she said. “They’re part of our world.”
She said most of the kids they have fostered have gone on to either be adopted by a permanent family or were returned to their biological parents.
And as former teachers, Hornibrook Doucet said they are comfortable forming relationships with the biological parents of the kids that they foster.
“I think it’s important to gain the trust of these parents, and that way, when they do return, we are a team,” she said. “We can help the parents or guide them, or support them and if things go a little troubled, then they can call on us and not feel that it would be awkward to do that.”
While Hornibrook Doucet said it can be hard when a child moves on, she would much rather it be she and Alan feeling that heartbreak as opposed to the child.
“When they leave, we have a little cry and then we move on because someone else is waiting and needs us.”
With files from Information Morning Moncton, Fredericton
This story was originally published in CBC News on May 29, 2024.
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