Confession: I promised myself I’d never go back on WIC again – Women, Infants, and Children food and nutrition service. I used the program once before, for a foster son with special needs who lived entirely on Pediasure. He drank $10-$15 a day, and neither we nor his birth mother, to whom he was returning, […]
We can’t tell you what we’ve seen, because it would be violating section nine of code-code something-something, but we’ve seen it and we can’t unsee it. Our children carry deep and lasting pain because somebody who was supposed to protect them hurt them.
This is a continuation of my last post, In Defense of Bio Parents. Confession: Everybody says that foster care is “all about the child,” but the truth is that in my county it is all about the bio family. That means every reasonable effort will be made to a) avoid removing the child from his […]
If we dare to meet your eyes at this moment, it would help so much if we could see in them that you respect us – not because of what we’ve done or left undone, but because we are fellow humans going through the worst days of our lives. If you think we don’t care, or don’t feel, or don’t know this, you are wrong. We really, really messed up; and we do not expect to find mercy in this place.
Once upon a time, when I was twelve or thirteen years old, my father took me with him on a week-long speaking engagement to central Pennsylvania. The church was warmly welcoming, and I made some good friends, including an eighteen-year-old named Gloria who took me under her wing. She was so pretty and stylish, and […]
When a beautiful woman in her sixties, with a serene face and an artistic hand, sits beside you at the craft table and asks to hear your story, you do not refuse. Nor do you refuse when a fun-loving stranger offers to do a coconut-oil-honey-and-cocoa-powder facial with you, and all the supplies are laid out. […]