Fostering Our Future, Part-3

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By Katie Ussin

Story Published: Feb 21, 2007 at 6:29 AM MDT

Story Updated: Feb 21, 2007 at 8:05 PM MDT

BILLINGS - For most of his childhood, Randy Koehler did not have a place to call home.
"At the age of ten my mom's parental rights were terminated," said 18-year-old Koehler. "I was confused a lot of the time of why my mom wouldn't fight for us. How she could just abandon her own kids."
After bouncing from foster home to group home, and losing himself somewhere in between, Randy said he finally found his way home.
"They're there for life," beamed Koehler. "They will always be there."
They are Dennis and Donna Giesick, and in the past two decades they have fostered 25 teenage boys, and raised three of their own.
"We don't consider them foster kids," said Dennis Giesick. "They're our boys," they both echoed.
A notion that finally put Koehler's soul at ease.
"Randy is a gem," said Donna Giesick. "He has come so far. He has just, I'm going to do it again," she said tearing-up.
She gets choked-up because she said these boys, her boys, just want to be loved.
"All they want is a home, is a family," she said.
And, have someone to wrap their arms around them.
"They showed me what it means to be parents," said Koehler. "They showed me what a parent is actually supposed to do for a child."
And that includes preparing for the future.
"He's going to graduate this spring from West," said Dennis.
"I've put an application in for Missoula, Butte and MSU-B," said Koehler.
He said he hopes to cook-up a career in the culinary arts.
"You know, Randy will cook-up a whole meal, he will!" laughed Donna.
"It's really fascinating how some simple ingredient can amount to something so big," described Koehler.
Like the difference a loving person can make in a child's life.
"I wish we had more families to do this," said Donna. "Because, there's a lot of boys out there and girls, that's it, that's it."

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