When Irene Clements and her husband, Billy, decided to create their family through foster care and adoption, they threw themselves into what became a lifelong labor of love. Irene and Billy fostered 127 children over the many decades of their marriage. They adopted four children, including sweet Melissa who is a special-needs member of the family, and they “adopted by heart” another child who did not want a formal adoption, but who is theirs, and they are hers, for life nevertheless.
In addition to their five children, they have 23 grandchildren and a growing flock of great-grandchildren that, to date, totals five with another on the way. Not bad for a couple who was told that they could never have children.
Irene felt so strongly about loving children who had been neglected, abused, or who were unwanted, that she became involved with the National Foster Parent Association to help others do this important labor of love. She served on their board for years, and ultimately as their executive director. In her roles with NFPA, she has helped countless other foster mothers deal with the difficulties that can accompany children who have been emotionally, physically, and sexually abused.
Irene and Billy learned that the work of loving a wounded child into wholeness isn’t easy, and it doesn’t happen overnight. In fact, in one case, one of their children left as an angry young man but returned 15 years later in a beautiful reunion with a relationship that remains strong today.
Irene has dedicated many years to the effort of encouraging foster parents to keep at it and to refuse to give up. She has invested countless hours in meetings and phone calls with foster parents who were ready to throw in the towel. She has traveled thousands of miles to Washington, D.C., and to points all over the country to advocate on behalf of foster parents and foster youth. In addition to her work with NFPA, she serves on the board of SAFE Coalition for Human Rights, as an Advisory Board Member with The National Child Traumatic Stress Network, and as board chair of EveryChild, Inc.
“Every day, we thank God for sending us this Bible verse upon learning we would not have children in the traditional way: He will take the barren woman and make her the happy mother of many children. Alleluia, Alleluia. Psalm 113:9. As time went on in our fostering and adoption journey, we learned the struggle, pain, and grief of adoption from the perspective of birth parents and their children and the overwhelming love, joy, excitement, and blessings from our perspective,” Irene and Billy wrote. “We hope we answered God’s promise to children by honoring them and their needs as He blessed us with our family.”
To help foster parents, grandparents, and other related caregivers, and to help biological parents to get their children back out of foster care, Irene helped to launch the National Foster Parent Association Training Institute to provide free online trainings to people for whom getting to a classroom is difficult. The NFPA trainings are available 24/7 free of charge to help strengthen families throughout the United States.
Ask anyone who knows Irene, and they’ll tell you that Irene’s actions speak louder than any words ever could. She and Billy walk their talk. They never give up on anyone, they believe in the goodness in everyone, and they’ve taught their children to do the same. They put their love into action every day without fail, because that’s just who they are.
