Job Update and Foster Care

Hi Family,
I have been meaning to write this on here for a long time but with recent circumstances, including Eric and Christina getting a foster child, and some events at work, this seems to be a good time. Some of you may not really understand my job, so I can start by explaining that. I work at KVC as a Family Preservation Therapist. Most of what KVC does is foster care and adoption services. Family Preservation is different. We get contracted through DCF (Department of Children and Families) to work with families who have received reports of abuse, neglect, substance use, or a long list of other issues. My job is to meet the family in their home once or twice a week to stabilize things and provide therapy. For the most part I have enjoyed it, especially when I get comments from families about how much I have helped or how much they appreciate the time and effort I am giving them. But as you can imagine there are several families who aren't as excited to have me in their home.

You may have seen my Facebook post last week about having a difficult day at work. I was dealing with one of the families I work with, a single mom and her two kids ages 7 and 10. The mom had recently tested positive for Meth and had told a worker that she had also sold it to provide for her family. Frequently when I had visited the home there were random guys just hanging out in the home. So things were already very sketchy. With this report of drug use I had to report it to DCF and an emergency court hearing was scheduled to discuss the custody of the children. It was my first hearing like this. They are not necessarily rare in our field, but what made this one different is the mother for some reason decided to bring her kids to the court hearing. Usually the children are not brought to court and DCF just picks them up from school. This was the very first family that I had been assigned to work with so I had been seeing these kids at least once a week for 3 months and had formed somewhat of a bond with them. The court hearing went as expected and the judge ruled that the kids would be taken out of mom's care. Usually if this happens the court tries to place the children with other family members, but in this case the family members either were not safe, or did not live in the state, so the kids were forced to go to a random foster home. During the sentencing the mom became very hysterical; crying, screaming, yelling, and unfortunately the kids had to witness this which meant they also became very upset realizing they would be taken from their mother. Eventually the mom had to be taken out of the court by the police officers because she was not cooperating and could not be consoled. Then I was asked to sit with the kids while all the other DCF and court workers dealt with paperwork and planning. It was heartbreaking to sit with these two kids who are sobbing and wailing and having a breakdown seeing their mom taken away and being told they were being taken out of their home. Talk about feeling helpless. I sat with the kids and tried everything I could think of to calm them down and re-focus their attention. After about 45 min they had finally calmed down a bit. It was one of the most difficult things I have ever had to do and see.

What hurt me the most was knowing these kids would be spending the next days, or weeks or months in the care of a stranger who they didn't know and who may not even show them the love they desperately need. Being part of an organization who specializes in foster care has made me aware of how big of a need there is in the KC area for new foster parents. They told us that there are roughly the same number of foster parents available today as there were 10 years ago, but the number of kids in need of foster care has grown by over 30%. I was so happy to hear that Eric and Christina are taking a foster kid because I know the need that exists. I have talked to Julie about wanting to begin fostering kids once we have our own home and have the space for it. Hearing these statistics and knowing the need for good foster families has continually caused me to think about the Burrichter family. We are so blessed to have a family that supports each other and loves each other so much. At the same time their are so many kids who need that love and support and I can think of no better people to provide foster care than the people in this family. I know this is a big request, but I would encourage each of you to consider foster care. KVC does training and walks families through what it looks like to be a foster parent. It doesn't matter how old you are, all that matters is that you provide love a support to some kids who desperately need it. I have included a video that I watched when hired. It was made to illustrate what kids go through, and the impact foster care can have. Its just over 12 min long, but I encourage you to take the time and watch. Hopefully it will encourage you to at least consider foster care. I know a lot of you do plenty of other great things for the community and people around us, but I can't think of a better way to fully live out James 1:27 "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress..."
Thanks for reading and remember to keep these kids and families in your prayers.