Fostering Love

Surely, Almina and George Frandsen could not have known where their generous offer would lead. With their own children reared, the Frandsens invited their niece’s four young children to stay with them temporarily while the niece was in the hospital. That simple invitation began twelve years of caring for foster children—often for a year or more at a time.

At last count, they had housed thirty-five foster children, not to mention the seven children they helped raise for Almina’s widowed brother.

Sister Frandsen explains that these comings and goings have been both sad and rewarding. One special child came to them when, in 1969, they took in a two-year-old blind foster child named Peter.

In the loving environment of the Frandsens’ Kearns, Utah, home, Peter blossomed. However, no one could be found to adopt him. The first application for Peter’s adoption, therefore, was signed by George and Almina Frandsen. The entire Frandsen family loved him.

When George Frandsen died in 1984, Peter asked if he and his mother might qualify to serve a mission as a couple. A one-year mission call was extended to them to serve in the Illinois Peoria Mission, at Church historical sites.

Elder Frandsen learned the script even faster than his mother, and they served together giving tours through the Carthage Jail, then the John Taylor home in Nauvoo.

Now home from their mission, Almina is a member of the Pleasant Green Second Ward, Magna Utah Stake, and Peter attends the Thirteenth Ward, Salt Lake Central Stake.—Nihla W. Judd, St. George, Utah