PORT ANGELES – Heart-swelling highs, lows that sear the soul: That’s motherhood. Julie Stockert knows both well, though she’s never given birth.
Julie and her husband Perry live in a six-bedroom house with four children who are 12 years old, 4 years old, 3 years old and 11 months, plus two great Danes – and somehow, it’s a place of peace.
This is probably because the Stockerts are doing what they have always wanted to do: care for kids who’ve had a tough time too early in life.
They’ve also accepted the fact that parenthood’s path never will run smooth.
When you have children, foster or otherwise, “everyone’s got something going on: an ailment, or some disaster has happened in their lives,” Julie began.
In the case of 4-year-old Miranda, who came to the Stockerts March 25, 2005, two days after they received their foster-home license, the disaster was her parents’ methamphetamine abuse.
Miranda, then 2 years old, weighed 17 pounds.
Today, Miranda behaves like a typical preschooler.
She’s excited about watching a Disney DVD, but obedient when Julie asks her to wait quietly in her room while Mama talks with a visiting reporter.
Miranda’s sister Sarah, 3, wasn’t quite ready to go to her room, however.
She stuck around for kisses and snuggling, sneaking glances at the visitor.
The Stockerts are in the process of adopting the girls, while continuing to foster baby Ben, who came to them in February, and 12-year-old Neika, who moved in six months ago.
