Through Hell and out the other side: Stories of a Therapeutic Foster Mom - Paperback

by Ellen Harlie (Author)

For those readers who enjoyed the "Best Seller" - "A Child Called It" - By: Dave Pelzer, and have been patiently awaiting another great book. Wait no longer. "Through Hell and Out the Other Side - Stories of a Therapeutic Foster Mom" - By: Ellen Harlie The Story of a Woman's Love for Children and the 55 unloved, unwanted, damaged children she took in. "You should write a book." During her 18 years of being a therapeutic foster parent, as Ellen Harlie related her stories of troubled placements to psychiatrists, psychologists, counselors, children's welfare agents, children's welfare managers, police officers, school counselors, teachers, principals and other persons within the system, at one time or another they inevitably made the comment, "You should write a book." Four and a half years after retiring from fostering, the book, "Through Hell and Out the Other Side - Stories of a Therapeutic Foster Mom" is a reality. This is the story of a woman's love for children and the 55 unloved, unwanted, damaged children she took into her home giving them the opportunity to enjoy a normal family life. Most of these children were unaccustomed to nutritious sit down meals, a room with a bed of their own, clean clothes, normal day to day hygiene, a five acre place in the country to build a fort, a creek to catch lizards and frogs, kittens, dogs, a pool to swim in the summertime, a place to ice skate in the wintertime, a basketball court, lots of other kids with which to get up a game of baseball or basketball, freedom to be creative, a structured environment with dignity and respect, but most of all Ellen gave them the true love of a mother. She dealt with their adversities and bolstered their strengths and made a difference in their lives. She patched their scraped elbows and knees, and soothed them during illness both physical and mental. Many of them didn't realize what a difference Ellen had made in their life until after they were older and out of her home for some time. Many of these, now adults, have befriended her on social media. Some are still in her life on a regular basis; some have occasional contact, some she reads about in the newspaper or on casenet for being in some kind of trouble. Everyone who reads this book will come away with a new perspective on what it's like to be a therapeutic foster mom. An adult book, it's not a novel of made up stories. These are memoirs. What the reader finds on the printed pages are the actual stories as they occurred without embellishment. There is explicit language and situations. A few readers will find it too graphic and hard to read. At age 48 after three of her four children were raised and had left the house, the road of life led Ellen Harlie into fostering. Her husband at the time suffered the failure of his trucking business which left them in financial turmoil. She saw a newspaper ad for therapeutic foster parents with top pay. It was something she could do from home and in order to salvage their failing financial lives she applied and was accepted. First came training classes to become qualified prior to being able to accept her first placement. Once certified by the state and county, she got her first placement and quickly learned the children placed as therapeutic placements were not the sweet young children other foster stories talked about that give people a warm fuzzy feeling. These were troubled children who needed a lot of care, understanding and weekly visits to psychologists and quite often psychotropic drugs with controlled administration to stabilize the chemical imbalances in their brain. They had a long list of psychiatric diagnoses. Once in; Ellen grew, and became recognized for her excellence and received awards and was selected by the governor to sit on the state advisory board. It was an amazing journey, with many roadblocks, and a story that needed to be told.

Author Biography

Ellen Harlie grew up on a farm outside of Great Bend, with one brother, her mother Rosine and her father Harlie. Social life in the rural area revolved around a large, but close extended family, in Barton and Stafford counties and church activities at Peace Church near Hudson. She attended a one-room school through eighth grade a mile and a half from their farmhouse. She spent hours playing with dolls, hoping she would one day have lots of children. Ellen Harlie is a 1961 graduate of Great Bend High School. She attended Hays State for a year and then married and moved out of state with her first husband, father of her two oldest sons. After 10 years of marriage they divorced and went their separate ways. In 1973 she remarried and had a daughter and third son by that union. Her second husband was in the trucking business quite successfully for many years but then the trucking business failed and in order to save their financial lives Ellen and her husband took up therapeutic foster parenting. They fostered 55 placements over 18 years, adopting three of those placements. Her second husband passed away in 2005 and Ellen continued fostering through 2009. Ellen married her third husband in July of 2009 and continued fostering until retiring from fostering on December 30th, 2009. With her 3rd husband's help and encouragement, she wrote her memoirs as a therapeutic foster parent and her first book, "Through Hell and Out the Other Side - Stories of a Therapeutic Foster Mom" was published in May 2014.