Everyone in Johnson County, Iowa knows Linda Herring as the person who would do anything to help a child and would take foster kids into her home no matter what their background or health issues. She was always happy to give a loving home to the kids who were the toughest to place.

Now, the 75-year-old is being honored for spending 50 years being a foster mother. In that time, she’s taken in over 600 children!

In addition to being a full-time mom (and then some!) she ran a daycare out of her home and worked as a custodian at the local high school at nights to make ends meet along with her husband Bob.

She also raised 8 of her own children (5 biological children and 3 adopted from the foster system – 2 of those adopted children have severe medical conditions). And as if she somehow had more hours in the day than the rest of us, she spent her “spare” time volunteering as a first responder with the local fire department for nearly 50 years.

We’re tired just thinking about it!

For Herring, that’s just what she was called to do. And she always wanted a house full of kids.

“It was a benefit to me because I love kids. I’ve always loved kids. We adopted three. We had five of our own. We always had a big family,” she told KCRG News.

Herring told CNN that she first got involved in the foster care system simply because she had a friend that became a foster mother:

“My best friend was doing foster care for teenage girls and I thought, ‘Well, that would be nice to do the same,’ but I wanted little kids. So, I talked to the Department of Human Services and agreed to take kids with medical needs.”

According to CNN: “Herring was known by everyone in Johnson County for never turning away a child, no matter their age, gender, or special needs, and would regularly travel to pick up foster children who needed a home.”

One of their adopted sons, Anthony, is now 39. He was just a baby when he came to the Herring home and 3 years old when he was adopted. Now he’s helping to celebrate his generous mother after the Johnson County Board of Supervisors honored her with a special resolution of appreciation in January 2020.

“She also worked hard to keep families together. Keeping siblings together. Helping biological parents make the changes needed to be able to keep their children. She always makes sure a new child in her home was given a professional photograph that was placed on the wall in the living room. That seems like a small thing, but it helps them feel like they’re at home,” he told CNN.

How did she do it? Love.

And while most of us have love to give, Herring just happened to have enough for 600 children – all of whom she shed a tear for when they left her home, even when they had only been with her for a few days.

It says a lot that many of the children she helped raise are now foster parents themselves.

Her granddaughter, Amber Herring, told CNN that she had just stopped fostering children a few months ago (in October 2019) and that was only because she was forced to do so due to health concerns.

Now that Linda Herring has “retired,” she says she hopes more families will consider stepping up to open their homes to children in need.

“It’s not hard to open your heart to a kid. It seems like there’s always little kids that need someone to care for them.”

And Herring is right. On any given day, there are nearly half a million children in the foster system in the United States alone.

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Source: People, CNN, KCRG News, TODAY