For more than a decade, Lovern Prince has worked alongside adults navigating some of life’s most difficult battles: mental health challenges, addiction, and the weight of unresolved pain. As a social worker and military behavioral health technician, she sat with people who had survived enormous hardship. Over time, she noticed a pattern.
“By the time they came to me,” Lovern said, “they were often still carrying hardships from childhood.”
That observation became a question she could not set aside: what if help had come sooner?
Lovern knew she could not change the past. But she began to wonder if she could help shape the future for children just beginning their journey. In 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, she and her husband Calvin became licensed foster parents with Wellroot Family Services.
“We know we cannot change the whole world,” she said, “but we thought maybe we can help one or two children.”
Since then, Lovern and Calvin have opened their Augusta home to 10 children and teens, each one bringing their own story and a need for a safe place to grow. Their home, already shaped by years of raising four children and welcoming nieces and nephews, was ready for exactly this.
One of those stories belongs to Levi.* He arrived at the Prince home at 12 years old, guarded and uncertain, shaped by a childhood that had demanded more of him than any child should carry.
His mother loves him deeply, but illness, financial insecurity, and homelessness made stability impossible. For Levi, home meant living in a motel and in shelters. School attendance was inconsistent, and daily life was shaped by uncertainty. When Levi walked through the Prince family’s door, he was guarded. He associated foster care with loss: separation from his mother, a system he did not understand, and little reason to expect something different.
But what he found was love.
For the first time, meals arrived at the same time each day. School became a constant, not an exception. A trip to the zoo, a stop for ice cream — small moments that reminded Levi what it felt like to simply be a child. But growth also required patience.
For a boy entering middle school without the habits his peers had spent years building, fitting in was not simple. Simple healthy routines that most families establish early had to be built from the ground up: personal hygiene, caring for his belongings, and the social skills that help a child belong in a classroom rather than feel apart from it.
“He had never been in an environment with structure before, so I had to teach him simple things like how to speak respectfully, how to carry himself, how to dress, how to interact with people,” said Lovern. “Now he’s a confident child. Seeing that change, seeing what happens when a child finally gets the opportunity to grow, that’s why I keep fostering.”
Lovern’s social work background shaped the way she approached every challenge. “Most of the time, what you see on the surface is not the real problem,” she said. When Levi struggled, she did not react. She listened. She waited. She created the space he needed to feel safe enough to grow.
Calvin stepped into the role of steady guide and mentor, offering Levi a male presence and a model for how to move through the world. Lovern, meanwhile, worked to build trust with Levi’s biological mother, making her intentions clear from the start.
“I love when I can work with the parents and say, this is what your child is doing, this is the progress they are making. We give them structure, we give them support, and when they are ready to go back to their family, that is success.”
From Getting By to Honor Roll
Academically, Levi arrived with what Lovern gently describes as a “C-mentality.” Getting by had always been enough, because just surviving had always been the goal.
That began to change.
Evening study sessions became a ritual: flashcards, spelling words, difficult nights and, sometimes, tears. But also progress, steady, earned, and real. Slowly, confidence replaced doubt. Pride replaced indifference.
By the end of the school year, Levi reached a milestone he had never imagined possible: he made honor roll.
Now 13, Levi attends a private school that reinforces the values the Prince family has poured into him. He reads his Bible, takes pride in his appearance, and carries himself with a new confidence. For the first time, he is preparing for a future and believing it belongs to him.
Answer the Call
Lovern will tell you that foster parenting is not easy. She will also tell you this:
“It is like giving birth. You go through the pain, and then when you see the child, you forget the pain, and you are ready to do it again.”
Children and teens across Georgia are waiting for a home like the one Lovern and Calvin have built. They do not need perfection. They need presence.
If you feel that call, learn more about becoming a foster parent at fosternow.org.
*Name changed to protect privacy.
