As you know, we are in the process of adopting from foster care. We have completed our 9 weeks of classes from the Department of Family Services, we have completed our home study, and now we are trying to be matched with kids.
This process is not easy. We were being considered for a sibling group, but the social workers chose another family for them. We are now waiting to learn more about a brother and sister.
In the US there are over 100,000 youth in foster care available for adoption. In 2017 almost 700,000 kids were in foster care. Every year 23,000 youth age out of the foster care system; most end up homeless, incarcerated, or on drugs; less than half graduate high school and hardly any go to college. There is a shortage of foster homes and adoptive families for these children.*
These kids need our help. Most of us will never foster or adopt, but we can still help. You can become a babysitter or tutor kids in foster care. There are clothes closets for foster kids that you can donate to.
Our local clothes closet for foster kids absolutely loved getting a "Birthday in a Bag" just get a large gift bag and fill it with a theme including party plates; ex. I recently found a bunch of Barbie dolls on clearance. So, I got 8 Barbie dolls and party supplies for less than $30.
I got the idea for a Birthday in a Bag after reading a story of a foster mom, who got a new placement a few days before the kid's birthday and nobody mentioned the birthday that was coming up. Thankfully, she saw it on some paperwork. She was left scrambling to give the child a birthday.
There are other groups, who do birthday in a bag differently. They gather the cake and food items. I know lots of people with food allergies, so I am more comfortable and think it's more fun to focus on the gifts.
Marie-Anne
* These numbers may not be correct- different websites had vastly different numbers. I couldn't find the number of foster homes.
No comments:
Post a Comment