Every year, thousands of teens transition out of foster care. Where do they transition to? Nowhere but the streets, unless we help them. The obvious answer is to give them a home and a family to support them into independence. No matter how old we are, we always want and need a home with roots and love. Adoption should be available for these teens way before they age out of the system. We can, however, also give them jobs and a belief in their futures.
Darkness After Foster Care
Müzik
-I believe that only the power of God can help children caught up in the "system" of foster care overcome the obstacles that many
de-sensitized "professionals"
put in the way of those who would love and cherish them!
May God give them an anchor to ground them and wings to help them soar to life and love!
A family oriented movie about a married couple dealing with the pain of losing their young son.
Years later, however, they are presented with the opportunity of giving a young boy who has lost his mother and father with a permanent home. Living from one foster home to another, the love of Maggie and Charlie are what this boy needs. It isn’t until the end of the movie that Maggie realizes that they need Matthias just as much. This is a movie that will remind your heart of God’s perfect will even in the face of imperfection and pain.
In this richly detailed and often surprising exploration of the foster care system, Betsy Krebs and Paul Pitcoff argue that the existing structure sets kids up to fail by inadequately preparing them for adult life. Foster care programs traditionally emphasize goals of reuniting children with family or placing children into adoptive homes. But neither of these outcomes is likely for adolescents. Krebs and Pitcoff contend that the primary goal of foster care for teenagers should be rigorous preparation for a fully productive adult life and that the standard life skills curriculum is woefully inadequate for this purpose.
The authors, who together co-founded the Youth Advocacy Center in New York City, draw on their fifteen years of experience working with teens and the foster care system to introduce new ways to teach teens to be responsible for themselves and to identify and develop their potential. They also explore what sorts of resources—legal, financial, and human—will need to come from inside and outside the system to more fully humanize the practice of foster care.
I am a former foster mom, who hopes to be able to foster again soon. My husband and myself fostered only for a little over a year, but fostering and adopting is a cause close to my heart. I was adopted by my grandparents when I was 3 months old. I was allowed to have an ongoing relationship with my mother, so I can appreciate an open adoption. I believe that both open and closed adoptions have their place. I also believe that families belong together whenever possible, but never at the expense of a child's safety nor in the presence of child abuse.
My husband and I are also hoping to adopt. When we first began our training for Tennessee DCS, we were going in as "adopt only" and having a child of our own was our motivation for getting our certification. But after being in the program we saw the need for temporary homes for children all over Tennessee (as well as every state), and we could not turn our backs on those kids. Children sometimes need only a temporary home while their families get things in order and learn to be better parents. Sometimes, they only need a hand up and time to get back on their feet. There are other times when they need someone to give permanency to their children when they cannot. Fostering is a noble cause when done for the right reasons. There is a need for improvement in the foster care "system" for the sake of kids that can easily get "lost" in it and for the foster parents who are easily overlooked and neglected! Children and foster parents deserve more rights!
According to Tennessee DCS' website, "Hundreds of children are in the guardianship of the State of Tennessee. The Department can find them foster homes, group homes and other residential settings. But children need a permanent home." Yet, we have been judged by Tennessee DCS as unfit to be parents to Tennessee's children who need homes. So I am here, to help those who can foster and adopt.
I hope this site can be of help to many of my fellow foster parents, for I will always be a foster parent and the mother my kids taught me to be.
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I have a personal space The Essence of Him , if you would like to just be my friend and are not interested in foster parenting or the topics that come along with it, please feel free to send me a friend's request. Of course, any friend on here, can join me over there too!
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***PLEASE RESPECT THE PRIVACY*** ***OF FOSTER KIDS ON THIS SITE!***
Please do not send pictures of your children to me or post them on my profile.
In Tennessee it is against the law to publicly display pictures of foster children. I'm not sure whether this is a federal crime or not, so please check with your state.
Please do not post comments on here, send messages, or comment on my blogs with any personal and confidential information about any particular foster children, that is not publicly known. It is Ok for you to ask questions or request my help in finding out information on a definite and direct problem or situation and it's Ok if you just want someone to talk to; however, the privacy and confidentiality concerning particulars about you and your child need to be respected here. If you need to talk, share advice, or receive advice, be general in your information, give no names, no genders (use his/her or they) and no addresses. This is for the safety of myself, for the safety of you, and most importantly - for the safety of your foster child(ren).
→ Please check out my friends' blogs for ← → more advice and tips for foster parents! ←
"People are like stained glass windows: they sparkle and shine when the sun's out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is light within." ~Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
Ok I am curious did you see today's show of Dr. Phil? What did you think about how they portray foster care? Not good, eh! I hate when all foster care gets catergorized as bad! I know that foster care isn't the ideal situation for any child but all foster parents are not bad. Geesh!
Dear Friend, I am so happy to have you as a friend on my page. You have my respect and admiration for reaching out and touching another childs life. I believe that little innocent children are the essence of who God is and they are so very near and dear to his heart. Any one who reaches out to a hurting child touches the heart of God. Be blessed! Love, Patty
HAPPY THANKSGIVING. WISHING YOU THE BEST HOLIDAY SEASON EVER. HOPE ALL IS GOING WELL MY FRIEND.KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK YOU ARE DOING. LOVE FROM VERMONT JULIE WARNER
Jesus Christ, the savior of my life and soul
Online!