For more than 20 years, Carol and Mike Garcia have been bringing children into their home.

After a rough childhood filled with near-death experiences, drugs and domestic violence, Carol knew she wanted to help other teens who experienced the rough aspects of life at an early age. When she met her husband, Mike, she told him right away that she wanted to foster kids — troubled behavioral teens, to be exact.

Mike agreed, but never really thought they would do it, at least not right away, being that they were both just in their early 20s.

Shortly after their wedding, the Garcias took in their first foster kid. Over the years, they have had 85 foster kids, all with behavioral problems, in their house — some staying a short time, others for years.

Their rules were simple: Act like a family, obey the rules and most importantly, have some fun.

“We felt if they were in the house, they were part of our family,” Carol said.

The kids had to learn to follow their foster parents and stick with them.

“I told them, ‘You follow me, I don’t follow you,’” Mike said.

Once they had two young boys with them. To teach them not to run off, they took weekly trips to Costco, where the boys were taught that if they got separated they would stay put, and that Mike and Carol would always come back and find them.

It took a couple of times, but eventually the message stuck.

“They stood there,” Carol said. “We came and said good job! We always praised them and saw the good.”

The Costco training was for a trip to Disneyland, where they took the boys.

“When we flew into L.A., they followed Carol so closely, when she bent down to tie her shoe they all ran into each other and fell over,” Mike laughed.

Mike and Carol made sure all their foster kids got to go on family vacations, with plenty of pictures taken. Carol would let each kid pick out photos they wanted and would then put it in a book, leaving room for the kids to write down why they liked that photo.

Currently, the Garcias are taking a break from fostering. They are spending the time concentrating on their adopted daughter, whom they’ve had since she was a drug baby.

The Garcias’ daughter is following in her parents’ footsteps. She works with autistic children at church and is currently in Africa, helping to restore wells.

They also have another adopted son, who is in his 20s now but was also a drug baby.

Carol went back to work, working with the developmentally disabled in the Federal Way School District from 2003-2008.

In the meantime, they have been helping out another group: Widows.

Since getting out of the foster care system in 2002, the Garcias have had a couple of different women stay with them, including widows and their current roommate, Marnie Gentry, who is recently divorced. They pay a small amount for rent, but other than that, they don’t have to pay any bills.

In January, Gentry moved in following her divorce. She knew the Garcias a little bit through church, but was still surprised when they offered for her to live with them.

“It kind of blew me away,” Gentry said. “It was very unexpected. It’s really nice being with this little family and it’s going really well.”

Now the Garcias are in the midst of a project they hope will bring in money — money that can be donated to the numerous charities the Garcias have come across over the years, such as homes for domestic violence victims and horse therapy camps for disabled children.

“We still want to help the community,” Mike said. “But we want to have the finances to do so.”

Mike has been working on an invention for the past few years that is now in the final stages. He had an investor lined up, but that money won’t come until late this fall. For his project to keep going, he is looking for investors with either $50,000 in gap funding to keep the project moving until the fall, or a new investor willing to put $250,000 into his company. In return, investors would get a return of 10 percent of profit for three years and collateral of $500,000.

His invention is geared for sports fans, especially those in the Northwest who are used to being frustrated with their teams. It also works well for those in the corporate world and in music, Mike said. The product would be assembled by developmentally disabled adults, giving them a job.

“This is our story,” Carol said. “And our next vision. We don’t want to reinvent the wheel (with a new foundation) we want to bless the foundations already out there.”

Since the invention is close to being done, the Garcias are not yet ready to spill the beans on their creation yet, but it is a crowd pleaser.

Anyone interested in contacting Mike can reach him at fiftymillionb@yahoo.com.