Mom of the Month: Kristen Crew {March 2021}

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The Washington, DC area is full of amazing moms: working moms, stay-at-home moms, single moms, moms of multiples, foster moms, adoptive moms, etc. We want to highlight some of those moms! Each month we will feature one special mom as the mom of the month. Know a fellow amazing local mom here? Nominate them here!

Photo credit: Allison Leavitt Photography

Meet Kristen Crew: March Mom of the Month

Kristen Crew is originally from Northern Virginia. After about ten years of school, travel, and work elsewhere, she found herself back in the DC area! She currently lives in lower Montgomery County with her husband, Nathan Crew, and her four children. Kristen is a mom through foster care, biology, and adoption. She and her husband were named Montgomery County’s 2020 Foster Parents of the Year. Currently, they have 8-, 5-, and 4-year-old sons, and a 2-year-old soon-to-be-adopted foster daughter, and have had two others in and out of their home in recent months.

In recent years, she stepped away from officially working outside the home. Formerly, Kristen was a special educator and an ABA therapist, working in school and in homes with individuals with autism. Kristen cares deeply about advocating for vulnerable children, as well as helping others understand early childhood trauma and how it can inform our care for children. She enjoys coffee, writing, and spontaneous day trips with her family, when not spending a year of life figuring out the highs and low lows of pandemic parenting!

Photo credit: Allison Leavitt Photography

Here is our Q&A with Kristen:

What is it like being both a mom to young children and a foster mom?

We pursued becoming foster parents the same month we found out we were pregnant with our first biological son, so we dove straight into all forms of parenting at once! We became licensed foster parents right before our son was born, and welcomed our first foster son into our home just three months after our biological son’s premature birth. There’s been no turning back since then!

It is very meaningful and purposeful to me that we get to serve our community as a family, and in our own home. Our days are full, and foster parenting can be a wild ride, but I have never once regretted stepping into parenting in these ways. It feels impossible to look away once you know the names and the faces of the families in our area that are facing such great struggles. It is hard and we certainly get tired, but it is worth it.

What are some initiatives that you do to volunteer and give back to others?

In 2019, my husband and I helped launch Citylight Church in Falls Church VA, in an effort to serve the community to bring real hope and help to all people. Most initiatives I personally take part in seek to preserve, equip, and encourage at-risk families, or any others in our community. We have done this in the pandemic in part by delivering food and tangible items to those in need. I am a mentor to teen moms through a partnering organization, Young Lives. I have also been on a team that has worked to create an inclusive environment for kids with various abilities to participate in group settings.

Also, I work with local agencies and churches periodically to speak at events and trainings to help others understand foster care, and the needs our kids have within the foster care system. We are in the process of launching some more resources and support for foster families that I am eager to see released soon!

What is one thing you want your children to learn from you?

Our children have come into our home in various ways, but what I want each and every one of them to grasp and understand is that they have immeasurable value and worth given by God, that nothing and no one could ever take away from them. I want them to learn that their life has meaning and purpose, in a way that gives them the ability to navigate all circumstances of life with hope.

Do you know an amazing mom that would be a great mom of the month?Nominate them here!

Photo credit: Allison Leavitt Photography