Eric and Marisa Albrecht have been a part of the foster care standby community since 2021 and have had over 20 standby foster children placed in their home. They have a passion to help children and families in our community. They answered some questions to share their story.

Meet the Albrecht Family
We have been married for almost 13 years and have three biological daughters, Ivy, 6, Seren,3, and Maeve, 5 months. We were both born and raised in the Lancaster area on farms but have enjoyed living downtown in Lancaster City since being married.

How do you describe standby foster care and what does that look like in your family?
We often refer to standby foster care as being the on-call family for any after hours emergency placements. We are the initial safe home for those children. It’s a week-long commitment and we need to be open to any and all placements while on-call. It could be a caseworker bringing a 6-month old baby to our door at 3 a.m. or a sibling set of three needing to be picked up from the hospital at 10 p.m. Standby foster care requires a lot of flexibility but is a vital piece of the puzzle to support the overall foster care system.

When children are placed with us it is typically their first introduction to foster care. We do our best to create a calm environment and to help them acclimate and answer questions. Standby is unique because of how short term it is. Children may be placed with us for only a few hours or up to a few days. They arrive with very little background info so we find ourselves being hyper observant to their physical and emotional cues to learn what we can do to best support them while they are in our care. Children often arrive with no belongings so that may mean making last minute trips to the store for a fresh set of clothes or baby formula to get through the night. We try to keep extra toiletries and essentials, and our girls have often shared their clothes to help get through that initial night. They love being able to help out as well.

Why did you decide to become foster parents? What makes standby foster care something you feel called to?
We had always been interested in foster care but began looking into it in 2020. Life had slowed down and we felt like it was a good time to get trained and start that process. We only had one kid at the time, so we felt like we had the space to welcome in more kids. We were interested in short term foster care to start, and while reading about standby at COBYS, immediately felt called to it. We are both flexible and don’t mind the challenge and “interruption” of standby. Both of our families are local so we also have a strong support system. We love kids and work well as a team so we can be all hands on deck when we get calls.

We value creating a warm and welcoming environment for these kids who have just been abruptly placed in our home and often are coming from some very hard circumstances.

Why did you choose COBYS as the agency through which you became licensed foster parents? What do you appreciate about the COBYS staff?
We knew we wanted to work with a Christian organization and some friends had highly recommended COBYS to us. When we began getting certified as a Resource Family we quickly realized we made the right choice. The certification process was extremely thorough and we felt like the training and requirements really helped prepare us for what we were stepping into.

The individuals that we’ve worked with at COBYS have all been incredible – detail oriented, organized, knowledgeable and always willing to answer our questions. We feel they genuinely value us and the well being of our family, supporting us in various ways when we need it, but also respecting the fact that we are human and have limits to how much we can do.