&uot;Mom.&uot; It’s the word a bright-eyed, waist-high child said most often to describe Angie Isaac King. But the child is wrong. Doctors, lawyers and strangers around the world would tell the smiling child that King is not her mother.

The girl shares none of King’s DNA, but has a lot of her heart.

And King has a lot of heart to share. The youngest member of the household is one of about 20 children since August 2000 to enter the country home as a foster child.

Right now King is mom to two foster children, two sons of her own and the little one, no longer in the foster care system.

The 20-plus children King has cared for range in age from months to 18 and stay from days up to a year.

&uot;You get attached,&uot; King said. &uot;Very attached. There’s just something about it when they start packing clothes and leave through that door. It makes a difference.

&uot;When they leave you feel kind of empty.&uot;

Empty is not a word that can be used to describe King’s house, built to house foster children. In 1999 King started building the house with a capacity to hold four foster children and her blood family. She was finally making steps to fulfill a decision made in college after hearing a classmate tell of her own life as a foster child.

&uot;In college I said to myself this is what I’m going to do,&uot; she said.

After following an ad in the newspaper, taking the proper classes and passing all the background checks King’s name was put on the list to care for foster children.

Now King starts her day at 5 a.m. to get the children ready for the school bus before heading to her job in a state agency. King’s mother keeps the children after school and when King goes to a part-time job for extra money.

At night everyone has an assigned list of chores to complete and sometimes the older children even prepare dinner to give King a break. Weekends consist of trips to rodeos, sporting events and whatever activity the children may be participating in.

&uot;It keeps you real busy,&uot; King said. &uot;I don’t exactly have what you’d call a social life.&uot;

King, 38, who is divorced, said being a foster mother keeps her emotions on a roller coaster.

&uot;My emotions stay up and down,&uot; she said. &uot;You don’t know how you are going to feel that day.&uot;

But she said the satisfaction of helping others keeps her going.

&uot;You’ve made a difference in somebody’s life. Very seldom does someone come here that doesn’t like it.&uot;

King said she works hard to make the children feel at home as soon as they come to her house.

&uot;I treat them just like my own. That’s the way you should do it.

Everybody has their own personality and sometimes getting everybody to get along is hard.&uot;

And it doesn’t always work out.

&uot;I like to try to get through to a child, but when you don’t you feel bad. You feel like you’ve failed.&uot;

But the bouncy little girl still hopping around the room doesn’t think mom has failed at anything. After all, she’s her mom.