Free to a good home

[bookwormb]

I'm not talking about a kitten or a puppy here, but about S, a real-life little girl of six years, who'll be seven this summer, who's sweet and smart and polite and also happens to be one of the hundreds of 'waiting children': legally available for adoption, and yet still in the emotional limbo that is foster care, BECAUSE THERE IS NOBODY WILLING

Comments

[urban_homestead]

Wow, that's really amazing that no one is available to adopt her. In the years after I found out I was infertile - right up to the point where I proved them all wrong ha ha! - I used to regularly check out the website of children available for adoption here, and there was nothing, I mean *nothing* but disabled children, and even so, white people were not even allowed to apply for them. I know adoption laws are more liberal in the U.S in that kids don't need to be of the same ethinicity as the adoptive parents, so I would have thought there would be no kids available for adoption at all, much less a healthy little girl. So strange, so very very strange.

I hope for your sake and hers that S. finds a loving permanent home!

[bookwormb]

Hi, thank you. I haven't known you long enough to know that you'd been considered unfertile...And I certainly can tell you it's not only not rare, but quite common: There are MANY children that are not disabled (not mentally nor physically nor 'TOO' disabled emotionally...considering!), that are currently foster with a 'legal risk' (where the bioparents' rights have not YET been terminated) or officially waiting to be adopted ...MANY! I also don't know what the State is doing to recruit adoptive parents for this little girl. The social workers are so over loaded that I wouldn't be surprised if they are not as active pursuing leads as they should be...meanwhile, to use the words of one judge regarding my own foster daughter (when referring to the need to speed up the process of freeing her up legally) her childhood is ticking away...
:(

[greyaenigma]

That family worries me -- if they were worried about how uncomfortable she'd be because she doesn't look like them (sheesh), I wonder if they gave any thought to how she'd feel not being adopted because she doesn't look like them. Grr.

[bookwormb]

Yep. What's especially troublesome is that they are actually *telling* her this (even if not in so many words). And she (the foster mother)'s done things before like talk about the kids (mine AND hers) in front of them as if they weren't there, as in "This one can be a little bossy, can't she, but she needs to learn not to treat others like that". (Said about K in that snotty tone you're imagining- you can guess how much K likes her!!

[bookwormb]

Yes, I think that's exactly it. The 'system' is so inefficient and overraught (sp?) with red tape, and the social workers so overloaded, it's disgusting. Meanwhile, this kid's childhood is, to use the words of a judge when she was referring to my own foster daughter's case, ticking away...