Dary se přece nevracejí – Janáková Ludmila (2025)

Families come together in various ways – this one simply found each other. The book is not only about the formation of one atypical family but also about the joys and challenges of foster care from the perspective of a woman who became a foster parent and guardian of two girls in an unconventional way and later gradually took in three more girls, two of whom have disabilities.

Ludmila Janáková was born in 1969. After graduating from high school in Příbram, she studied at the Faculty of Pharmacy at Charles University in Hradec Králové and later special education at the Faculty of Education at Charles University in Prague. She worked for a year and a half in London as an au pair. After returning to the Czech Republic, she worked as a special educator in various educational institutions. She began her long-term foster care journey more than twenty years ago. In total, she has had or currently has five children in her care, most of whom are now adults and live independently. The author is currently caring for a six-year-old girl with a disability (cerebral palsy), whom she took in in 2024. She also lives with her the second youngest daughter (23 years old), who has Asperger's syndrome.