My Journey - Holly Seaver

From Addiction Recovery Nurse to Foster Parent: One Woman's Journey to Help Children Find Their Forever Home

Have You Heard the Story About the Addiction Recovery Nurse Who Quit Her Job to Care for Children Affected by Addiction?

It was 2018. For nine years, I had been working as an addiction recovery nurse when I learned that the children of many of my patients had been placed in foster care. At that time, about 9,000 children were in foster care. I couldn't help thinking that maybe, as empty nesters, my husband and I could do something to help these kids. The desire became so strong that I quit my job as a nurse, and we became licensed foster parents.

Since then, we have fostered 18 children and adopted three. We have formed wonderful bonds with our former foster children, and some have even become part of our extended family.

But I wanted to do more to help the foster care community.

A story I tell foster children when they come to our home for the first time is the true story of how our two cats, after many stops along the way, found their forever home. That story became the book Jack & Max & the Happy Home. I wrote the book so that other foster parents could share the story with their foster children and encourage them to believe that they, too, would find their forever home.

Then, at the urging of another foster and adoptive parent, I wrote a story about children going into a new home with new family members, titled My New Home and Me. I learned that 40% of U.S. children don't grow up in an intact biological family.* This book encourages not only foster and adopted children, but also children in grandparent-led families, blended families, and multicultural and multiracial families. It promotes racial and cultural understanding and is a wonderful tool for teachers and counselors.

The profits from both books are donated to organizations that help children.

I have also had many opportunities to promote foster care and adoption, including:

PBS Stories from the Stage — "Foster Care Meant Opening Her Heart and Home"
May 6, 2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glvGRoK7baM
The Adoption & Foster Care Journey Podcast — "From Empty Nest to a Full House with Holly Seaver"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJKMCEIkZVU&t=5s