Napa Hospice Nurse Fosters Over 50 Children

Everyday Inspirations is a series that features people in Patch communities who inspire others through their work, or people who have faced extraordinary situations and grown from them. They have been featured by other people in the community that have been inspired by the nominees.

Name: Peggy Smith
Town: Napa, CA
Nominated by: Tom Smith

Why is this person an "Everyday Inspiration?" 
For 18 years she has been a foster parent to about 50 children in Napa, three of whom have been adopted.

Not only has she actively cared for foster children, but also started a nonprofit called, Expressions of Hope, which provides a backpack of age appropriate personal items to each child who enters the foster care system. EOH also provides home furnishings, such as beds, tables and chairs to foster/adoptive families.

She is also actively involved in recruiting, training and encouraging foster/adoptive parents. Besides her work in the Napa County Foster System, she also works as a Hospice nurse.

Has the nominee's life been changed in an extraordinary way? 

After taking in several foster children in the evening/night hours and making a trip to 7-Eleven to pick up diapers and formula, she started Expressions of Hope to make the transition easier on the children and also less stressful on the parents as infants would at least come with a package of diapers and formula and other children would have a clean pair of pajamas. She has become passionate about promoting the need for foster/adoptive parents.

How does this person work to make others' lives better?

In everything that she does.