SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – There probably haven’t been many times in the last 33 years where there hasn’t been a baby or infant in the home of Jim and Marty Schurke.
So far, they have fostered 55 children, many with special medical needs.
“We are a medical foster home and licensed for newborns to three-year-olds, but not all have medical needs,” Jim said.
Babies up to three years old, have stayed with the Schurke’s anywhere from one week to three years.
Knowing that the babies are generally not there to stay long is part of the understanding of the role. Both say it is a calling.
Marty & Jim Schurke
“We usually have two kiddos in the home at a time, sometimes three. When one leaves we go back on the list (to receive others). It was difficult when we were younger (and the children had to leave). It was lifting our hearts out. But we are in our 70s, and we know we can’t keep all the children. It’s still hard when they leave, especially the ones with medical needs. You just have to have a certain mindset,” Marty said.
“You just know you are taking care of them, and they are not there to stay. We’re not fostering to adopt,” she said.
Their license will be renewed in February for another two years.What keeps them on the availability list?
“I don’t know. Several times we think it will be our last one, but it’s in our blood,” she said.
“We still have two kiddos in the home, one 10 months old with fetal alcohol syndrome and one three-year old with chromosome issues.
Marty’s parents also fostered for a number of years, taking in three dozen or so children in northwest Arkansas.
It doesn’t hurt that Marty is a retired nurse after 43 years of work. Many of the children need medical attention. James retired from the same hospital in Springfield after 27 years in the department that managed electronic equipment.
“It doesn’t bother me to get up in the night and care for them and then go back to sleep.”
The Schurke’s have a married son, who with his wife have two grown children and have adopted a 3-year-old whom Jim and Marty originally fostered. Jim and Marty also have a special needs daughter in a care facility.
While Jim and Marty haven’t fostered children to adopt them, they did adopt one. They got Emili at 10 days old and adopted her at age three. Emili now has a Masters degree and teaches special education.
Several of those they fostered have been adopted and live in the states of Washington, Oklahoma, Ohio and Arkansas, among others. The Schurkes hear from some of them. Several times the Schurkes were present at the adoption ceremony, having seen the same judge in child custody cases.
Some of the stories are heart-wrenching. One six-week old girl they fostered came to them as a shaken baby. An Oklahoma family adopted her and the girl still has lingering issues, but she is now 6 years old.
“She has a stent in the brain. I spent a lot of time with her in the hospital,” Marty said.
“We had a circle prayer with them in the living room when she was adopted,” Jim said.
Another baby was a “meth baby” when she came to the Schurkes. That girl’s biological mother has since become drug-free. The Schurkes had the child for eight months. She is now 4 years old.
“We get texts and pictures all the time from them. We’re in contact with the baby’s grandfather who has kept the mother off drugs,” Jim said.
A boy they fostered is now 29, but had serious asthma problems as a baby and behavior problems as a child.
“I made them (the officials) move him to another home so someone could begin the adoption process. It wasn’t a week later, and they found him a home,” Marty said.
One baby, Jaxsen, had multiple health issues, and when doctors tried to insert a feeding tube, they found a malignant tumor. Jaxsen was one of four children removed from the home at the time, and one sibling later said Jaxsen’s life mattered because he brought the family together.
“His mom and his grandma help us decide what we should do. Hospice was chosen. He passed away in our home when he was 15 months old. He was so precious,” Marty said.
The Schurkes took a vacation in November 2024, arriving home on a Sunday. By Tuesday, a 10-month-old current foster child went back to the hospital for another week. Marty stayed there virtually the whole time.
“The babies don’t have a lot of their mother’s love. That’s what Marty does here,” Jim said.
Some of their former foster children they don’t hear from again.
“It’s definitely a ministry. Our society has caused a lot of this. There are a lot of kids who need to be loved and cared for,” he said.
“We do our very best and leave it to God, because we don’t know what’s next for them,” Marty said.
They suggest contacting Missouri Baptist Children’s Home or a county family services agency for more information about foster care.