REGIONAL – Linda and Ryan Bajan are used to taking care of other people. They’ve taught and cooked for hungry, growing high schoolers at the Vermilion Country Charter School in Tower and managed groups of rambunctious Boy Scouts at the Northern Tier High Adventure base in Ely – they’ve even gone through the heart-wrenching process of nursing a sick and dying family member at one time. But, the Winton couple said their latest task at hand requires a level of care they’ve never experienced before, and they have the baggy eyes to prove it.

Last June, the Bajans became foster parents through the North Home Foster Agency of North Home, Minn., They hope to use the system as a means to permanent adoption, as they aren’t sure if they’ll ever be able to have kids of their own due to medical reasons.

Since becoming foster parents, they’ve hosted two elementary-school-aged girls, and now, they’re fostering a set of infant twins from the local area.

“It’s an opportunity I wouldn’t otherwise have,” said Ryan.

But, it’s a tiring one, nonetheless.

“Never having a baby of my own, constantly being sleep-deprived, re-focusing my day-to-day priorities has been a major ordeal,” he said.

Like any new parent, Ryan is adjusting to the sporadic and relentless responsibilities of caring for infants. But he and his wife have an extra difficulty that most parents don’t share; they worry their children will be taken away from them and relocated back to their original homes or to those of biological family members, as this is the nature of foster care and what happened to their previous two foster children.

“You can’t help but become somewhat attached,” said Ryan. “You have a child who is young, who is depending on you to provide, and you’re trying to stay detached because you just don’t know.”

By law, children are limited to 12 consecutive months of foster care in St. Louis County. During that time, the county’s Department of Human Services tries to reunite the children with their biological parents or family members by working with the families to resolve any threatening safety issues concerning the children in the home. If that option doesn’t work, the county then looks to place the children in suitable permanent homes. And, in the Bajans’ case, they hope to act as that permanent home.

Until then, Ryan said he and Linda will cherish their time with the twins, and remain dedicated to and impassioned by their opportunity to foster children.

“I realize that there are a lot of children who need above-average care,” Ryan said. “You know you’re providing a better life. You reflect on that when you’re changing a diaper or see a smiling baby looking at you.”

The uncertainty that comes with the high turnaround rate the Bajans have experienced with their foster kids is just one of the hardships these types of homes undergo. Most child foster care homes can expect to take on children who are dealing with various emotional, behavioral and developmental complications due to abuse, drug-use, neglect or abandonment in their homes. The job calls for people over the age of 21 who are willing and able to be affectionate and consistent care givers in the toughest cases.

Because of these special requirements, St. Louis County reports it’s been having recent difficulty in recruiting more child foster homes.

“We’ve tried just about everything,” said Ann Busche, the Director of the St. Louis County Public Health and Human Services. In the past couple months, the county has erected billboards, launched educational videos, and set up a website dedicated toward recruiting new foster homes, but these efforts haven’t been enough. The county still needs more.

“Our numbers are dwindling,” she said. “Our homes are full and they just don’t have room to take more kids.”

Busche also said that while many of the county’s experienced homes are aging out of foster care and choosing to retire, the number of kids-in-need is growing.

According to the county’s press release, about 500 kids are living in out-of-home care on any given day, which is a 25-percent increase from five years ago. Just over 400 of these kids are in family foster care units, while the remainder of the 500 are either in group homes or a correctional setting, according to Holly Church, the county’s Division Supervisor of Children and Family Services.

Both Busche and Church agreed that the culprit of this growing situation is the recent increase in opiate-related drug abuse.

“The use of meth, opiates, prescription drugs and heroin is on the rise,” said Busche. “This isn’t like it was years ago when people could be confronted with the problem and work to get their kids back. This presents a whole different problem because these drugs are so powerful, that even though these people love their kids, they can’t get off their addictions or they have relapses.”

And strong drug addictions along with relapses means higher re-entry rates into out-of-home child care and longer periods of time away from home.

“Kids are staying in foster care longer than they have been, and this is filling up our homes,” said Busche.

Parental drug abuse is especially affecting American Indian communities statewide.

At the end of September 2014, 406 American Indian children in Minnesota were in out-of-home care due to parental drug abuse compared to 144 children in 2007, according to the Minnesota Department of Human Services

Though the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa hasn’t had much flux in the number of their children needing foster care, parental drug abuse has become a more prevalent factor in such cases. By the end of September 2014, 60 Bois Forte children had entered foster care and 23 percent of those cases were because of parental drug abuse — a percentage which has gradually increased from five percent in 2007, according to information provided by the MDHS’s public information officer, Katie Bauer.

As foster homes fill, kids-in-need have to spend more time waiting in shelters. Church explained that shelters aren’t the best environment for vulnerable children, and the county does its best to keep children in their home by either removing violent parents or having a relative move in while the children wait for a spot in a foster home.

“Shelters are a group-living setting,” said Church. “Police come to the door in the night, kids come and go. They’re excellent in the critical service they offer in our communities, but they’re not a family setting. They don’t have a routine to the day or the stability of foster homes that really provides that nurturing children need when they’re coming out of their home. It’s a traumatic time for them.”

To learn more about child foster care or to become a foster home, visit www. stlouiscountymn.gov/childfostercare or call 218-749-9793 or toll free 800-450-9777, ext. 7793.