We were pressured to accept kids we were not qualified to handle. And we do that to people all the time, which is why we don't have enough foster parents.

I'm missing work. We didn't have enough money for preschool. I had a panic attack. I couldn't do it. I became one of those horrible foster parents who give the kids back.

I have spent a lot of time with foster children over the years - kids for whom I have not necessarily acted as a foster parent.

I've worked with homeless kids, kids in foster care, and I've never met a kid who couldn't be reached.

I am not only the person who wrote and sold a novel while raising a houseful of biological and foster children; I am also the person who wrote a horrific young adult novel that never sold and gave up on a foster child I couldn't handle - an experience that still haunts me.

My last book, 'The Language of Flowers,' I wrote completely on naptime, when my little kids were asleep.