Saginaw woman shares glimpse into large family, foster system Cheaper BY THE Dozen:

By Abigail Blonigen

Jolene

Schlander had always wanted a big family, but did not initially anticipate a family of 14. Schlander and her fiancé are the parents of a dozen children: Lyrik (20), Elizabeth (17), Dezire (17), Isabelle (15), Erin (13), Jason (13), Jurney (11), Kendric (10), Bailey (9), Aleena (9), Morgan (7) and Kordelia (6).

Schlander began fostering after she had three children, never with the intention of adopting. The first family she fostered was a family of four, and Schlander was determined to keep the siblings together.

The kids ended up coming and going a few times, which isn’t atypical in foster care. However, when they left for the last time, it left a hole in the family’s hearts.

The family went on a vacation to Florida shortly after the kids left, and “it wasn't fun,” Schlander said. “The only thing we could think about is if the other kids were with us, how much fun it would be.”

When the four siblings came up for adoption, Schlander knew what she had to do. The family of five soon became a family of 10 after the adoption process went through and

Schlander gave birth to her fourth biological child.

“They played like siblings, like they had been together forever. … When (the foster kids) came back and reunited, it was really awesome to see,” Schlander said. “They were all super happy to see each other.”

Since then, the family has grown by four with the arrival of another biological child, the adoption of a niece, and another foster-to-adopt situation of two siblings, though they don’t bother making the distinction of who is biological.

“Our adopted we call our own; we normally don’t use the ‘foster’ or ‘adopted’ words,” Schlander explained.

Schlander grew up with caretaking in her blood. Her neighbors growing up did foster care, and her grandmother helped raise the grandkids in addition to taking care of her grandfather, who was a paraplegic.

Her grandfather in particular was Schlander’s idol.

“He had no feeling from the waist down, but he did things that most men with legs would never do,” she said. “He never said he couldn’t do anything. He always tried.”

Jolene Schlander smiles with her grandparents, whom she credits for inspiring her to take care of others.

In addition to raising a dozen kids, Schlander also tends to her 300-acre farm near Saginaw, Minnesota, with cows, horses, sheep, goats, chickens, pigs, dogs, cats, and a pet goose. Schlander breeds Labradors and weimaraners for sale and works as a farrier, trimming and caring for horses’ hooves. Her fiancé, Calvin, raises the cattle and pigs for butchering and works in construction. Schlander said the animals are often therapeutic for the kids.

Foster care is incredibly challenging, but Schlander has found it to be amazingly rewarding. She recalled taking a couple of girls dress shopping for the first time and seeing how overwhelmed they were with all of the choices they had. Another family of three they cared for had never had a Christmas tree or Christmas presents.

“It’s quite amazing what we take for granted,” Schlander said. “We don’t even realize that with the stuff we’re doing with our kids, that there are kids out there that don’t get that experience.”

Schlander has become a proponent of the foster care system, encouraging those who have the interest and the means to look into it. Especially with the added financial and mental health stressors of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is always a need for foster homes.

Schlander wishes more people explored fostering and foster-to-adoption options within their county systems, emphasizing that it is not as expensive and complicated as one may think.

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“I think a lot of people that would be really good at (foster care) or could do it think that they couldn’t,” due to their income, housing situation, or relationship status, which isn’t necessarily the case, Schlander said.

As one could imagine, the pandemic has posed a unique challenge for Schandler’s large family as well.

“I don’t think I would have had a household of 12 if I had known I would ever do distance learning,” Schlander said in regard to the 2020 school year.

The kids had to take shifts with their online learning to not overload the family’s internet, and their internet was completely down for over two months last winter.

This school year, the kids are back in school in person, which comes with its own set of challenges, including frequent COVID exposures.

“With having 11 kids all in different grades — if one has a cough or a fever or a cold or flu, they all have to come home,” she said.

Despite the difficulties, the pandemic has had a few silver linings for the family. The switch to virtual appointments has saved them time and money on travel. They have become more efficient with their trips into town so they can go less frequently.

Overall, this time has served as a means to slow down and focus on what is most important.

“You kind of learn to appreciate things a little bit more. You realize how much you took for granted when you had it, so there’s been some positives to it,” Schlander said. D

Abigail Blonigen is a Duluth freelance writer.