Gladney Blog

Part 2 of a 2-part Reflection on Adoption and Foster Care:

Empowering Parents on Behalf of Their Young Children

Part 1 of the reflection on adoption and foster care addressed how to give older children a voice, when the court has determined that the child cannot be safely returned to their home. [Part One] Part 2 considers how to empower parents with young children in decision-making, in particular mothers who have struggled with drug dependency, when the state is ready to step in and remove the child. The parent may be continuing to have significant struggles with parenting a young child or may have delivered a drug-exposed infant. Often, this mother is overwhelmed and living a chaotic life, because of a chaotic childhood. People charged with helping the parent in establishing a safety plan may need to consider additional tools to help empower her, in conjunction with the usual state-system-safety-toolkit. This parent might be able to reflect on her own life, for answers in making decisions for her child. By helping her overlay her own childhood experiences and current situation onto her child’s future and allowing the parent to look at options outside of foster care, we can give the child a voice through the parent.

This weekend another human trafficking story played out on the news. More than three dozen children were rescued across the state of Georgia during a human trafficking bust that involved state and federal agents. The team dubbed the case “Operation Not Forgotten”.

This past week my daughter was playing in the backyard when she suddenly ran inside yelling “Daddy, there’s things flying everywhere in the air!”  When he went to look, he found a giant swarm of bees and quickly ushered her and our Golden Retriever inside. After a little investigation, we found there was a large beehive in our neighbor’s tree. For all the obvious reasons I was worried for our safety—we’re not sure if our girls are allergic to bees yet—but I was also disappointed.  Like many homes with small children, things can get loud, chaotic, and overwhelming.  Our backyard has become a sanctuary while we’ve been sheltering in place and now this bee Armageddon was taking that away.