Now, for those who don't know, I was in Foster Care from the age of 3 until I was 14....I was blessed to be in one placement home and to have the best foster mom any child could hope for. I had everything any child could want. Yet, I was a sad. They had taken us away from my mom [to this day I do not know why] and they separated all of us, they took 5 children and separated them. No contact with each other, no visits with each other. To this day were are not close like brothers and sisters should be. My brothers tell stories of severe physical abuse, and not being fed and my sisters have similar stories.
My sibs were all back home in 3-4 years but I stayed for in Foster Care for 10 years. Why?? I don't know. I have asked, but I have never received an answer, so I just stopped asking. Truth is I would have been there longer, but I wanted to go back to because I missed my mom and my brothers and sisters, so DCF allowed me too on a trial bias, [notice I said] "I wanted to go back". I stayed home with them for about 4 months if that, and one night after dark I ran away back to my Foster Mom and stayed with her for a additional year, year in a half. When I returned to my mom at 14 I stayed until I was 16 and eventually I got my own apartment. My Foster Mom died when I was 17.
Foster Care can be good but it can also destroys lives. This video below, saddens me deeply.......I can relate to how Tristen felt about his family or the lack there-of. Even if you are not being moved from home to home or city to city you develop huge trust issues...It's not that you don't want friends, you don't want to get attached to them because you've learned that DCF/ or being a Ward of the State, can destroy that.
There was also a time when DCF wanted to place me on MEDS for depression [I believe I was 7 at the time] but my Foster Mom would not allow it. She would anoint me and pray over me, every morning and night. DCF thought I was depressed but I wasn't depressed, I was heart broken. Yes, I was happy but I would cry myself to sleep at night because I was heart broken.
I didn't understand what was going on and why I had not seen my mom, dad or my sibs in so many years. I felt abandoned and forgotten. I remember that anytime I was downtown, at the park or a parade, where there were crowds of people, I would just look around hoping that I would see someone from my family.
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