Teaching Tuesday

Well today's Teaching Tuesday is for you. Yes, you. Right there. Yes, the one reading this! This is the last full week of Foster Care Awareness Month. Foster Care is needed all year long, every day, every hour, every minute. Every second that passes there is a child in the United States of America without a home. Without a family. Without love. There are scary facts for children who grow up without a family.
*40% of foster children will be on welfare or in prison
*only 17% of foster care graduates will be completely self-supporting
*only 54% will graduate high school.
*only 49% will will be employed as an adult
*1/6th of children in foster care will be placed in a group home (that's about 84,000 kids) with no hope of ever having a family.
* there are about a HALF MILLION children in foster care in the United States at any given time.
*there are about 145,000 children that are legally free for adoption (also known as waiting children) at any given time. Children that will not be returned to a family member, that will age out without a family.

There are lots of opinions and rumors about foster children. Very few of these kids are foster children because of troubles they have caused. These children have been taken from their homes because of mistakes of their parents. Drugs, abuse, neglect. These children have done nothing wrong. Sure, some kids have issues. They have seen horrors you can't imagine. Sure, there are emotional issues. Of course there would be. Love can heal so much. Without a family, these kids have a very small chance of a normal life. Children need love, children need a family.

Isn't it hard to say goodbye? OF COURSE. It sucks, it's heartbreaking, sad, crushing. It's horrible to say goodbye. But when you are saying goodbye, you did your job. You did your best. You loved with all your heart. It's all you can do."You should never avoid hellos just because they might lead to goodbye." You'd be missing out on so much.

These are children, damaged yes, but children. Innocent souls who deserved to be loved, deserved to be given a chance. A chance that was denied to them by their birth parents. Won't you consider getting involved, committing to a child?

Call you local Department of Social Services for more information. There is a huge online support group. Please, just call.