The day he said YES

I have wanted to be a foster mom for years and years. I have friends and family that have been in the foster care system, some having positive experiences with foster parents and some having very negative experiences. I have a soft spot in my heart for children. Children need to be nurtured and guided in order to assure our worlds future. They are SO SO important and absolutely vital for our future successes in this country. Yet with that being said parents, caregivers, teachers, adults and even clergymen all over are abusing and neglecting these vulnerable defenseless beings everyday. The very people who are meant to protect them from evil are their nightmares.  The foster system is overloaded with cases.  Many cases being so severe  because they can’t even take every child in need out of their scary environment and place them in a loving, safe home because there just isn’t enough homes. Sometimes these children are overlooked and ignored because if they were taken they would sleep in an office before entering a group home with overworked under paid staff and over crowded beds. Foster homes can be worse than where they are being taken from because social workers are missing signs of abuse and neglect, sometimes because they have 50 or more cases they are overlooking at one time. Some homes are reporting that they go months without face to face contact with an actual worker from their foster agency. There is no question about it, the foster system is broken.  My husband was not always on board. In fact he was pretty much dead set against it. This was the one thing  I couldn’t seem to get my way on. So finally I decided to take a different approach. I started talking to him about foster care like he was asking FAQ. Did you know, Did you know??? Also making a point to show him every tragic news story that came on or passed through Facebook. I could tell he was coming around because eventually he would ask questions... and not just what’s for dinner, but real thought out questions about foster care. I had started to tear down that wall that people build when they don’t know enough facts. I started to ease his preconceived fears of what foster care really means. But then one day this was in the headlines... this was the straw that broke the camels back. This story was so tragic that even a person who stayed naive to headlines couldn’t ignore. This was the day he said call a foster agency and find out what we need to do... This was the day he said yes to foster life.  16 year old Sabrina Ray lived the most horrific tortured life full of hatred and abuse instead of love and compassion. She was taken from her abusive home and placed in foster care separate from her siblings. She was later adopted from foster care into a more abusive family than she was taken from originally, ultimately resulting in her death.  Sabrina’s story could not be ignored or forgotten, not in this house anyways. Sabrina is not the only child who was abused in foster homes, it happens every day every where. 5 year old Nathaniel Gard was in his pre-adoptive home when he died from the abuse of his foster dad.    I hope that now Sabrina knows that her tragic life and death has affected our family for the better and will continue to make a positive difference in the world as we continue our journey in foster care. Nothing could ever make up for all the torture she endured but hopefully she is able to rest peacefully now, maybe for the first time in her short existence. Sabrina’s story is what changed Morgan’s heart, that enabled us to get licensed, that made our house a home for 3 young chilren in need, and what made our family part of something so much bigger than us. Thank you Sabrina Ray.