Hello followers! Tonights class was really good and POSITIVE! Thank goodness...I was beginning to wonder if this night would EVER come! Subject tonight was Grief and Loss (which yes I understand that it might appear confusing that I actually enjoyed tonights class, but I did)
There are 2 teachers for this class and I enjoy both of them. They have very different teaching styles and tonight Theresa taught the entire night and she was amazing at delivering her personnal experiences with being a foster/adoptive mother. Dealing with grief and loss for the children in the foster care system is very common and will effect every child. From the loss of being seperated from birthparents, to the moving around from foster home to foster home, to the abuse that they individually deal with. For those of you that have children....give them a BIG hug tonight and every night for the normalcy that you provide them and the stability of a loving home!
Tonight was POSITIVE because of what an influence I can be for a child that has been through a trying life! I can't wait for this experience and yet I am wondering if I am up for the challenge! Its all a waiting game.....I can't wait!
My closing thoughts comes from our teacher...she read this story tonight at the close of class and I think it sums up the reality of why I am doing this journey..................of being a positive influence in a childs life! Thanks for your support and love....:-)
"Son for a Season"
by Jo An C. Nahirny
The last Friday in September was supposed to have been Jeremy's "Special Day" at nursery school. That's when he would have brought a favorite toy for show and tell and picked the book his teacher would read to the class. His mom would have supplied snacks for al the kids.
"Special Day" came differently for Jeremy. He didn't go to school with his toy and book and snacks. Instead, his day began at 7 am when a man he didn't know arrived in a car he didn't recognize. Imprinted on the car were the words STATE OF NEW JERSEY. Jeremy was still rubbing the sleep from his eyes when the man carried the single bag that contained his wardrobe and a box of stuffed animals and tossed it in to his trunk.
I will never forget the look on his face as he was taken away. We'd tried to prepare him, telling him he was going to live with his Grandma and Grandpa in Pennsylvania, but he didn't understand. To 3 year old Jeremy, I was Mommy and my husband was daddy. He had a sister and brother which were our biological children. All he understood that a strange man was taking him away.
Both my husband and I had tears in our eyes. Jeremy was our foster son. He stayed with us from June to September...our hopes would have been to keep him longer, forever if possible but the state of new jersey felt that it was better for him to be with relatives.
People ask us why we became foster parents. "you have your own children, they say. Why do you want other people problems.
My heart aches even more. I asked myself "why do we do this?".
Months after I posed that desperate question of "Why?", Mike and I attended church together. We listened to the scripture reading: "He then took a little child whom he set among them and embraced, and he said to them, "anyone who welcomes a little child such as this in my name, welcomes me; and anyone who welcomes me, welcomes not me but the one who sent me.
Mike nudged me and whispered, "THAT'S WHY WE DO THIS' And that's why we'll be foster parents for years to come!
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