ROCKVILLE, Md. - A new home in Rockville is dedicated to helping reunite parents and their children, after the children are placed in foster care.

Jonathan Bell was just 10 years old when he was taken from his mother and called their regular, supervised visits cold and difficult.

"It got very emotional for me," Bell said.

It is stories like these, thousands in fact, that had the Montgomery County (web | news) looking for something better. And after a year of hard work, they found it.

"It's a home; we have a kitchen, we have a dining room, we have rooms all over the house," said Pat Fleckner, a foster parent.

Officials call it the visitation house, a single-family home in Rockville, Md., where foster children can meet with their biological parents and feel at home.

"She sees a window, she sees toys, she sees a kitchen, you know, she sees that," Fleckner said of her foster child.

Fleckner brought her 10-month-old foster child to the home for a meeting with her biological mother and says the homey meeting place makes a world of a difference.

"It is more homey for them, so they don't feel like there is a threat," Fleckner said.

Eighteen-year-old Jonathan Bell is no longer on supervise visits, but says he wished the home had been there when he needed it.

"It will be a stepping stone for them to go back home and reunite with their families...I hope it brings families back together," Belle said.

Montgomery County cares for more than 3,600 foster children every year, and the visitation house hopes to fit in at least 30 meeting every month.

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