October 1, 2013

Our second child was another 20 month old boy.  His middle name was the same as mine : )  He came to us in the middle of the night.  The agency called me at midnight and asked if we would take him.  The feds had just raided where he and his family were staying and he was taken into custody.  We agreed and he arrived at 3 in the morning asleep.  I put him to bed.  The next morning around 11 I was sitting at the kitchen table when I heard little footsteps coming down the stairs.  When he got to the bottom he had a smile that filled up his whole face and ran right to me.  I was immediately in love.

He had such a sweet spirit, we didn't know everything about him but we knew he had been loved.  He fit into our family and our lives like he had always been there.  Never a moments trouble.  A couple of weeks later we visited his teenage mother in a shelter.  She had him at a young age and lived with her mother, mother's boy friend and sisters.  The agency wanted us to take her for a short time until another relative could take both of them.  She joined us and a short time turned into almost 2 years.

While they were still with us I took them to the agency to visit her mother weekly. Every week I would see other foster children who were also there to visit parents.  I met with and talked to many foster parents, unfortunately, I can count on one hand how many were good foster parents.

One little girl, I saw every week.  She clearly had lice in her hair and was not being taken care of.  Her and I would spend the whole time talking, cleaning the play area and playing games.  She was 8 years old and the oldest of 5 siblings.  They had all been sexually abused by their parents and the 6 year old was in a mental hospital.  All 5 of the children were in different homes because they could not be placed together because of their behavior.  I talked to the supervisor and told her that if this child would ever need a different home my family would be interested in taking her.