Foster kids enjoy day
designed for them

A Christmas party highlights
families’ love and hardships

In the Kipapa house, Christmas starts in July.

With 14 kids to shop for, that's when Jolyn Kipapa and her husband, Kurt, start their holiday gift buying.

Otherwise, the all-at-once financial burden would be too big to swallow for the Waimanalo couple, who have adopted eight children, had three of their own and are fostering two more.

"Every year is challenging," said Kurt Kipapa, who works for the city. "We always have to make sure everyone has the same amount of gifts. It's a financial burden."

The Kipapas gathered -- all 16 of them in matching aloha wear -- at the Blaisdell Center yesterday along with more than 400 other families for the sixth annual Friends of Foster Kids Christmas party.

Organizers say the party was meant to take some stress off families during the holidays, when bills can get overwhelming.

There are more than 2,700 children in foster care across the state. Of those, about 60 percent will likely will be reunited with their families. The rest will either be adopted, placed under permanent guardianship or age out of the system, according to the Friends of Foster Kids.

The search for foster parents has become more pressing in recent years with an increase of displaced children because of the state's crystal methamphetamine epidemic, said Linda Santos, the nonprofit's executive director.

Dani Ruiz and her husband, Santo, have five foster kids and legal guardianship of a teen. The couple also has three of their own children, ages 11 and 8 and an infant.

The kids had a blast getting their faces painted, receiving gifts and playing carnival games.

Meanwhile, Dani Ruiz spent much of the afternoon taking a breather with her husband. The two started as foster parents in 1999. Besides their current foster kids, they have taken care of eight others.

And it hasn't been easy: They've had to deal with teen angst, runaways and financial hardship. A big family makes for an expensive Christmas, but they wouldn't have it any other way.

"We want Christmases and birthdays to be a really big deal," said Dani Ruiz, a social worker. "A lot of them (foster kids) never get to have these extravagances."

The Kipapas took in their first two foster kids from a neighbor who was on crystal meth.

When they realized the children had three siblings, their brood increased.

The Kipapas' kids range in age from 1 to 26, and eight still live in the couple's nine-bedroom home. The Kipapas said they never take in a new child without their other kids approving. Their children have never said no to housing a foster child.

"I don't think love has a stopping point," Kurt Kipapa said. "There's a demand, so much, for foster parents."

And now, Kipapa said, the couple's oldest has followed his parents' lead and recently applied to become a foster parent. He will be taking in a child soon.