It would be hard to find a father more involved in his children’s lives than Marcos. In every placement over the last 6 years, he has never missed one court hearing, one family team meeting, or one bio family visit. He makes it to most of the doctor appointments as well and has taken off countless hours of work to help with the children’s needs, even if it’s for a day at the zoo.
Marcos loves every child as his own and treats them with kindness and tenderness in their darkest hours. He gets up in the middle of the night for bottle feedings or nightmares. He teases and plays with the kids and teaches them how to take a joke, which teaches the children how to laugh off some of the comments that other children say that could be hurtful.
Marcos has been Daddy to a baby girl who was a Daddy’s girl, who deeply loved her bio dad, but couldn’t live with him anymore. Marcos has taught a 15 month old boy, who was so terrified of men, because of the abuse he suffered at the hands of his bio dad, that he wouldn’t be in the same room as men for two weeks Through Marcos’ patience, the child learned that men should be kind and gentle and loving and protective and trustworthy. Marcos is now that little boy’s favorite person and the man he goes to for comfort and protection.
Marcos has sacrificed time with friends, hobbies, and even retirement for the sake of these children. Marcos has a heart of gold and his children know it. They adore Marcos. He is their everything!
Resource Family Consultant (RFC) Karin Thorn says, “They are very cute with their current placement. Marcos is known amongst his friends and family to be the guy outside playing with the kids at a party, while all the other dads are inside on the couch.”
“They had to take a tough stand in the last team meeting and speak up for the kid’s needs. They voiced that the transition was traumatizing for the children and advocated to move forward with reunification, even though the bio mom had screamed in their face and stormed out of the room during their previous meeting.”
We congratulate Marcos for being chosen as the Salt Lake Foster Dad of the Year.
