HIGHWAY DISTRICT 12 News Release (Tuesday, January 8, 2019) – Shantana and Ryan Woodward of Harris Newsome Branch, Penny Road, Pike County, are the Eastern Mountain Region’s 2018 Foster Parents of the Year, selected by the Cabinet for Families and Children and honored recently during a luncheon ceremony at the Governor’s Mansion.
“Ryan and Shantana have been foster parents since November 2016,” their social worker, Amity Smallwood, said. “In this short time, they have fostered six children in their home. Since the beginning, they have been champions for the children they foster, every step of the way.”
Smallwood said the Woodwards work well as partners with the Cabinet and the family court system to ensure all of the basic, educational, permanency, and emotional needs of the children are met. “They demonstrate great compassion and dedication, working with birth parents to not only meet the needs of the child, but to assist in any way possible to help better the birth parent’s life as well.”
They also volunteer as foster parent mentors. Shantana was assigned three mentees her very first month. “What helps us be successful foster parents is finding a healthy balance,” Shantana said. “We prioritize time for ourselves and have a date night at least once a month. We have to reconnect so we remain strong role models for our children, and we recommend this to all new foster families.”
“Ryan and Shantana are wonderful foster parents and are exactly what we stress to potential foster parents going through the pre-service classes,” Smallwood said. “They are always there to assist other foster parents and have shown a natural ability to love and nurture any child coming into their home.”
Ryan and Shantana and their biological daughter, Gracie, lead very active lives. Ryan, 32, is a sales associate at AT&T’s Pikeville store (Weddington Square). Shantana, 33, is a right-of-way unit leader for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, Highway District 12. Their daughter, Gracie, 6, is a student at Valley Elementary. The six children they have welcomed into their family range in age from birth to 9 years, a newborn still in NICU to elementary school students, up to three at a time when there were sibling sets. All the children have been reunited with their birth parents.
For weeks Shantana left work, went to Pikeville Medical Center’s NICU, scrubbed in and held her newborn foster baby, talking to him, cuddling, loving him in his fragile first weeks of life. Then it was home to Gracie and Ryan and the baby’s older sibling. “Not all foster situations are this extreme,” she hastily points out. “We are sort of the adventurous type anyway, so this didn’t really phase us. But most foster kids are not also medically challenged. They just need your love and the stability and discipline that come with being part of a normal family, if there is such a thing.”
Shantana pointed out that Kentucky officials estimate that this year, 2019, one in five children will be in out-of-home care. “I will be happy to talk to anyone who thinks they might want to foster children. The next class will probably be in the spring, but before then I can answer questions so that maybe people will have a better idea before they commit about what is expected.” Shantana can be reached at Highway District 12, 606-433-7791.
