Hutchinson ? In Esther Yoder’s dining room, doll babies nap in a crib, and toy trucks line the bottom bookcase. More toys fill colorful crates and wooden shelves. On the table, a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle of dogs waits for small hands to fit more pieces in their places.

“‘I found one that fits,'” Daniel, 4, always exclaims when he makes a match, Yoder said. Leading the way through the back porch and down a step into the fenced-in back yard, Yoder is greeted with sounds of children at play.

“Look what I can do, Mama Esther,” Daniel called out as he hung from the swing set monkey bars. “Mama Esther,” 71, a slight woman with a gentle, firm voice, has been taking foster children into her home for the past 30 years. This morning’s backyard sights and sounds are the happy side of being a foster parent, she said. It’s the tomorrows, when they leave, that tear at her heart.

“The hardest thing about foster care is the letting go,” she said. “It’s kind of like a death — except with a death people grieve. That’s different from the loss of a child who has been removed from your home.”

This day, dressed in a bright blue dress she sewed and wearing the white cap of her Mennonite faith, Yoder reached out to each child’s needs. Daniel’s sister, Patty, 8, her long hair in braids and wearing a soft, sweet smile, pushed out her legs to keep the swing moving back and forth through the spring sunshine.

Daniel wrestled with a stuck zipper on his hooded jacket. Yoder tugged to free it and snapped the jacket shut. From the swing they moved to cycles, filling the yard with constant motion. On her dining room wall, a lineup of framed portraits tell of the more than 100 foster children Yoder has sheltered — some as long as 10 years, others a single day.

Patty and Daniel have lived here more than a year. The oldest of 11 children, Yoder never married, but that didn’t stop her from filling the bedrooms of her big two-story home with children — from babies brought to her in the night in only a diaper to one of her former foster children, now a young woman grown up and with a baby of her own.

The first day and night are always the most difficult, Yoder said. From then on there’s the honeymoon period.

“It takes a little longer before you see the true child,” she said. For their first meal she serves something all children like, macaroni and cheese. So many of them have grown up on sandwiches, cold cereal and hot dogs, she said. Yoder’s menus consist of made-from-scratch cooking. The children love her homemade cinnamon rolls and chicken and noodles. She smiles at the memory of one who relished hash brown potatoes. They all like banana muffins.

The talk of food brings another smile to Patty’s face. Potato salad’s her favorite, she said. Along with the old favorites, Yoder loves trying new recipes, she said. Children thrive on structure, Yoder said, sharing a philosophy she’s learned from experience. The morning routine includes making the bed, eating breakfast and dressing for school or play. They put away their toys when moving to a new activity and say a blessing at each meal. Bedtime brings goodnight kisses and a promise to each child: “I’ll see you in the morning.”

Being a foster parent means you have to love children — and being able to see the difference you can make in each one’s life, Yoder said. Part of the job means helping them face whatever their future holds.

“I’ve prepared many, many children for adoption,” she said. Parenting is hard work. But while she’s given up taking in babies, who must be fed during the night and get sick so easily, she’s not ready to retire.

“I’ll keep on as long as God gives me the ability,” she said.