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Showing posts from December, 2016

Out of the Box, Haiku and Family Meeting for Fresh Takes

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Moving moon  through months   Memories thaw hearts until new year light shines bright Foster care gives breath Pain longing sweet moments wait Serving as one now New days await with promise full of simple joy Giving faith a chance 3 haikus by Deirdre, be gentle with me this is my first shot at Haiku poetry! Family meeting last night we spoke together of how to celebrate New Year's Eve as a family, what we wished for in the new year. One thing that came up from our teens was brainstorming how to re create patterns of behavior , for example how to make Saturday mornings more peaceful. M1 suggested a big breakfast where we all gathered. Today Sheff made blueberry pancakes, and fried up turkey bacon (give it a chance nitrate free and very good from Costco;) we felt connected and ready for the day. Our teen daughter suggested we all come up with three goals for the new year and have family partners to check in with throughout the year for support. Our middle

How to Get Involved with Foster Care, And Support Those Who Serve in This Way

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The hope in Foster Care is to heal families, to give birth families a chance to get back on their feet. In the very first training every educator cannot stress this  enough. At times it can feel as if potential families are being pushed away! That is not the intent, the intent is to teach and inform. If that primary goal cannot be accomplished, the hope is to find families with open hearts willing  to take a chance on a child, willing to re create their family and make room for a child who deserves the chance to grow with stability and unconditional love.  Loose statistics in our area say about 60% of kids will not reunify with birth families. It is painful to live in limbo and not know if a child you are loving might leave! Having spoken to many Foster families I am finding that everyone agrees that pouring love into a child helps them no matter what. If a family is placed with a scared and traumatized 3 year old, creating stability for that little person will change them forever