Who? Amber Bohl What? Haven Hills Foster Community Why? Amber Bohl has fostered 80 children in her home in seven years. Amber’s passion for foster care started after the loss of her first child at 24 weeks gestation. “The loss of our son really felt like a hole that needed to be filled in my heart,” explains Amber. “I used to tell people I wanted 52 children.” Amber and her husband Jeff did have two biological children after, Brennen and Alivia, but she still felt called to foster. After talking it over with her family, they decided to start fostering children in their home. Amber often fosters children with medical challenges because of her 25 years in healthcare. She’s also helped many teenagers graduate high school and transition into a new stage of life. While their focus is on reuniting biological families, Amber and her husband did adopt a sweet girl named Taylynn who is now six years old. As beautiful and rewarding as foster care is, there are a lot of challenges. For every ten homes that are licensed for foster care, nine are lost or discontinued. The demand for foster homes is great, and there are many challenges within the system. Foster parents are often without support, tools, or resources. Social workers are over-worked. Foster youth have to deal with constant inconsistency, making it extra challenging to develop a personal identity and form a community. Amber’s personal experience with the difficulties of the foster system has fueled a new dream: Haven Hills Foster Care Community. The vision for Haven Hills is a network of twelve homes located about ten miles north of town on 80 acres. Haven Hills will be a community of foster families to provide them the support they need. There will also be on-site therapies like OT, PT, Speech, Mental Health, as well as equestrian and pet therapy. There will also be some tiny homes, 1 bed, 1 bath, for foster kids over 18 who need a safe place to live independently within a community. The project is currently in the fundraising stage, but Amber is working tirelessly to move the project along. “People say how do you do this, and I say, God gives me the strength. I really don’t do anything special,” she says. “You do what you do because the kids need it.” Want More? Havenhillscommunity.org BISMARCK-MAGAZINE.COM
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