Ever since she was a little girl, Melissa Servetz has had a love for children. Melissa’s mom was an elementary school teacher and her father remembers creating a makeshift classroom in their basement so Melissa could play teacher to an imaginary class. They knew no matter what Melissa grew up to do, it would be in service to children.
So it was no surprise when Servetz became a school teacher and then in 2015 she became a foster mom. Since then, she’s fostered more than 60 children, some for over a year, some for just a few days. "It varies on whatever the children needed and what placement just needed my help with,” she says. “They would call me in the middle of the night and say, ‘Hey, I have a two-year-old that needs a placement. Can we bring them?’ And I said, ‘Absolutely so.’"
But some of those foster children have ended up finding a permanent home with Melissa. First, sisters Jane and Destiny came to live with her, then Matthew became a part of the family in 2018 when he was just three-days-old, and finally Emerson joined them in 2020. Now the siblings can stay together and the single mom has a family of five. She says so many kids are in need of a safe and loving home and she hopes they all can find a family like hers.
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