Some moms downsize when their children leave home. Sheila Andrade did the exact opposite.

Rather than live in a three-bedroom house in Kane'ohe on her own, the mother of five added another three bedrooms and opened her door to a stream of foster kids. She generally has as many as five foster children at a time living with her, plus two boys she has adopted.

"When all my children moved out on me, that's when I extended the house and started borrowing other people's children," Andrade said. "I was lonely. The empty nest was not nice for me. It's not comfortable."

It runs in the genes.

Andrade's mother started taking in foster children with special needs in 1954, when Andrade was 7.

"That was just the beginning," said Andrade, who thinks that her mom must have sheltered at least 100 foster children over the course of her lifetime. "She took in the worst of the worst and they gave her 'no hope' stories, but she did not give in to that. She would never give up on a child."

'END OF THE ROAD'

In 1986, Andrade got involved in foster parenting to help relieve her mother, who had been assaulted by a particularly troubled teenager with special needs. Although the girl also assaulted Andrade and her children, eventually she came around and is still in Andrade's care today at age 37.

People ask Andrade why she takes in the children who are hardest to place — a task she sometimes likens to combat duty. The answer is simple: She's the last chance at a home life for many of these children.

"I'm like the end of the road," she said. "From here they get institutionalized."

Some children never adjust but others form such a tight bond with Andrade that they end up calling her Mom. Andrade says it doesn't matter what they call her, she just wants them to feel secure.

"I think the rewards are when they learn to trust, feel part of the family, feel loved. They become human, and they start bonding," she said.

Tracy Chung, Andrade's supervisor at Health Resources, calls the foster mom an inspiration.

"Motherhood is already a difficult job," Chung said. "For her to be so compassionate and to open her arms to children who aren't her own — someone else's children, children with special needs — it's amazing.

"You can see how many lives she's touched, not just the kids she's been a foster to, but her own kids are foster parents, too."

Three of Andrade's five children have gone on to become foster parents.

"That's the third generation," Andrade said proudly, adding, "I'm very sure that a few of my grandchildren — which I have 14 — will be foster parenting, too."

ALL IN THE FAMILY

Two of those grandchildren were foster babies one of her daughters adopted.

Her oldest daughter, Joedi Wood, 40, started out as a respite worker for her grandmother, then, after she married, she and her husband became foster parents even before they had children of their own.

Andrade's son Brian Peroff has not become a foster parent, but provides some of the support Andrade says she couldn't do without.

After growing up with all the foster children at his grandmother's house, Peroff said it seemed natural that his mother kept up the tradition. He stops by almost every day to help his mom take care of the house and the children.

"Her purpose in life right now is to do everything she can for others. She did it for her own kids. Now she can do it for other kids," he said.

Although it's not always easy, Peroff said, "I just feel that if they don't have someplace to stay that's safe, they have to have someplace they can come to that they'll get food, clothing, love, somebody to take them to their appointments."

Children might stay with Andrade for a couple nights or a couple years.

Leafing through a binder full of paperwork on the children she has fostered, Andrade said that it breaks her heart every time one leaves.

Her hope for all of them is that they will be reunited with their parents.

"That is the goal," she said. "We're not here to take children away from their family. We're here to put them back with their family, but it has to be a safe environment."

Not everyone goes back to their families, however, and she has adopted two children since she became a foster parent.

When Rainbow Andrade came to stay with her at age 2, the plan was to reunite him with his family, but "through prayers and a miracle, I was able to adopt him. The family didn't want to break the bond that we had, God bless them."

Now 10, Rainbow welcomes all the new foster children in as brothers and sisters, sharing his clothes, his toys, and, of course, his mom.

"They usually ask me stuff, and I tell them it's all right, there's nothing to be scared of," he said. "It's a good house."

Advertiser staff writer Treena Shapiro writes a blog, Family Tree, that will be featured on the new www.HawaiiMoms.com Web site. When she's not being a reporter, Shapiro is busy raising a son and daughter. Constantly on the hunt for child-rearing tips, family-friendly activities and amusing anecdotes, she shares the best and the worst in Family Tree and encourages other moms to do the same.

Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.