Submitted Photo The Trowbridge family includes: sons James, 15, Rylan, 13, son-in-law Mikey Meester, daughter Madi, 23, sons Dashel, 3, Maverick, 12, parents Michael and Tamra, and daughters Ellie, 20, Taylor, 25.

BURLINGTON — Mike and Tamra Trowbridge of Burlington have fostered more than 100 children and adopted four.

“We have been so blessed with the children that have come through,” said Mike Trowbridge.

The Trowbridges decided to foster because they knew there was a need for foster homes and it was a need they could provide. They already had three biological children when they started fostering. Both also come from big families with lots of siblings and cousins and are used to being around kids.

They have always known that the goal is to reunify foster children with their own parents or other relatives, but it can still be heartbreaking to say goodbye to a child they have welcomed into their family.

Two of their sons, James, 15, and Maverick, 12, were adopted in 2013 when the Trowbridge family was living in Minnesota.

The Trowbridges officially adopted two other boys, Rylan, 13, and Dashel, 3, last summer on the same day through Catholic Charities.

They had cared for Dashel as a foster family since he was about 2 1/2 months old. Rylan first came into their home as a foster child when he was a third-grader and they eventually adopted him when he came back into care. The Trowbridges also have three biological children, ages 25, 23, and 20 and are currently fostering a 3-month-old baby.

The Trowbridges said the adoption process in North Dakota was even more intensive than it was in Minnesota.

Prospective adoptive parents have to go through background checks, a home study, interviews and psychological evaluations to help them get ready to become adoptive parents. Foster parents also go through evaluations and take classes to be licensed.

The whole process helped them to prepare to be the best parents they can be to the sons they adopted and to answer questions that come up about birth families.

The Trowbridges said their adopted children have some level of contact with their biological families, whether it is birth parents, birth grandparents or biological siblings, but it has to be healthy contact.

Kids who have gone through traumatic experiences might have more emotional baggage than other kids and might sometimes test their adoptive parents, but the Trowbridges don’t take that personally.

Mike Trowbridge said some people might be hesitant to adopt or foster a child because they are afraid kids might have problems. However, he said he’s found that the kids who have come into his home are just kids, with problems common to ordinary kids, and their parents are usually the ones who have had the problems that caused the children to be placed in foster care. Out of the more than 100 kids they have fostered, only a handful have had problems, said Mike Trowbridge. The others were fantastic as far as fitting in to the Trowbridge family. He said there is no difference in the way they feel about the children they have adopted and the children who were born to them. They love all of them.

Foster families can ask for help when they need it in caring for foster children. Adoptive families too can negotiate subsidies that will make adoption more affordable. Children adopted from foster care are eligible for Medicaid after they’re adopted and families might be able to negotiate an adoption subsidy that will help pay for expenses such as daycare.

The Trowbridges have a full house now with their children but they are focused more on providing foster care for children whose foster parents are going to be away.

They also love hearing about how children they have fostered in the past are doing now and marking their special milestones.