I have been married to my wonderful husband Stewart for 9 ½ years and together we live in Iselin, NJ in the home we purchased in March of 1999. I am a stay at home Mom and my husband just had his 25th anniversary as a professional firefighter in Plainfield, NJ where he serves as Deputy Chief.

We have 5 children; Melissa is age 20, my daughter from my 1st marriage. Matthew is age 14 and is from Stewart's 1st marriage, he lives with us and I have raised him as my own since he was 4 ½ years old. Together we have Jonathan age 8 and Michael age 6. Last but certainly not least is Krista who is age 2 1/2. We adopted Krista last May through NJ Foster Care. Two of our children have special needs. My 14 yr old is autistic and my 2 ½ yr old has Cerebral Palsy and learning delays due to extreme prematurity so that keeps me busy.

My animal’s family starts with "Driver" a Greyhound who is 8 years old. We rescued him 3 years ago from L.I.G.H.T. A wonderful Greyhound Rescue in Long Island NY. He is the best dog ever!! Then there is "Sirius Black" a Greyhound who is 6 years old that joined our family a few weeks ago. He was returned by his former owners after nearly 3 years. Next we have “Jake", "Elwood", "Billy", "Bing", and "Caillou" our beautiful Siamese cats. Onto our Fids... "Lilly" an Umbrella Cockatoo who is about 2 years old, "Twister" a Sun Conure and also a WOH Rescue. "Mini" a Cockatiel who is 6 years old, "Kiko" a Red Belly Parrot, who is around 5-8 years old, "Grey Bird" and "TQ." Cockatiels that are also WOH rescues, 12 Zebra Finches, 4 Gouldian Finches, 2 Cordon Blue finches, and 5 Parakeets.

On my own I am fostering a pair of bonded Lovebirds and a pair of bonded Parrotlets that were given to me. I am not sure if I will keep them for our family yet or not. They were being given away to the first person willing to pay a few dollars. So I took them to save them from an uncertain future. I could not let the people give them to just anyone. At least now I will be able to make darn sure they are going to a safe home, if I even let them go.

In my last paid job, I was a HUD Certified Housing Counselor for Low Income Families. I worked part time while the kids were in school. I left that job in order to bring my daughter home. DYFS has rules of how much you can work outside of the home when you take in a foster child with special needs. That job just took up too much time and she was so much more important than any job. Before that I stayed home with the kids for 6 years and before that I worked as an Administrative Assistant and an Office Manager.

We were licensed Foster Parents in New Jersey for 3 years until last month when we closed our home voluntarily. After the adoption of our daughter, we felt that we were at capacity with humans. We think that we have done our part having fostered over 30 children in 3 years and adopting one.

I am a Tiger Cub leader for my sons Cub Scout Pack and I am also the Treasurer for the Cub Scout Pack handling all the finances. Its fun to be a leader, but it can be challenging at times to try to control a room full of boys for an entire hour.

We have been involved with Greyhound Rescue for over 3 years now. We have fostered about 15-20 rescued racers. Most of them right off the track but a few returns as well. It is such a rewarding experience!!

There are between 20 & 40 thousand Greyhounds killed each and every year. You know that every dog you take into your home is another life saved. These dogs are just so wonderful, unlike any other breed. A dog I highly recommend for any type of family. I volunteer currently for 2 Greyhound Rescues, Makepeace with Animals and NJGAP. I have done both fostering and adoptions as well as intake for returns.

I did a short stint with a Siamese cat rescue in the tri-state area, but it was not for me. I fostered 1 cat and did 2 intakes before I quit. I could not foster cats due to my cats not accepting other adult cats in the home and the B.O.D. did not welcome any other help.

I also offer my time to a couple of dog/cat transports on the east coast. Mostly, I have helped transport dogs/puppies cats/kittens for 1 to 2 legs of trips that were bringing dogs from the Virginia area to the NJ area and north of NJ as far up as Massachusetts. I have also boarded one dog for an overnight one time. The person coordinating the trip, e-mails volunteers asking people to offer their services for 1-2 hour trips bringing the animals from point A (a high kill shelter) to point B (a rescue group or adoptive home), 1 leg at a time, they get transferred from car to car until they get to the rescue group or adopter that is taking them in. It’s a great way to be involved with saving lives. You get to meet a lot of really nice people too.

Our past experience with birds is on my side. The hubby has not had birds and never thought he would ever even touch one. Now he is as involved with their everyday care and attention as I am. It’s really neat to see him with the birds.

My first bird was a white/pale blue (almost totally white) Parakeet named "Angel". She was so very sweet. She would fly around the house and loved to be with me. She and my cat, "Boots", got along and he never tried to hurt her. She died at about 5 years old without any warning or reason. That was really upsetting. About 6 years after her, my father got ill and needed help with his bird, "Pepper", a Yellow Nape Amazon. I took him to care for him for a couple months while my Dad recovered, well that turned into about 3 years. He was a very good talker, but not the friendliest bird. I still have a scar from a pinch he gave me.

When he went back to Dad, I got "Tweetie", another Parakeet. A very sweet and friendly bird! He was a talker and sound maker. He said, "Hi Tweetie", rang the phone and doorbell. He lived only about 6 years. This was another tough time. No reason for his death, probably just another case of bad breeding.

We joined Wings of Hope, NJ in February 2005 when I found the web site on the Internet. I was looking for a good group to help out after the adoption of my Cockatoo, "Lilly". I realized after looking on Petfinder that there are way too many birds being given up for no good reason. I knew that I had time and space to help these birds. We had experience with birds in the past and really did a lot of research on the proper care of them. Having birds of our own and fostering them is such a rewarding experience. I am proud to announce my new position of Foster Home Coordinator effective January 1, 2006. I am looking forward to helping out this wonderful group save many more birds.