Recently, in our local news, I heard about a 2 yr old little girl that was beaten to death by her 11 yr old babysitter. So many things bother me about this story but three questions resonate within me. First, why would any mother allow an 11 yr old child to babysit for them? Second, where was this 11 yr old's parent when she was beating this child to death and thirdly, the question that I can't stop asking myself, what makes an 11 yr old child so angry that they would commit such a crime. I feel that this is one of the questions that the authorities need to be asking themselves.
I believe that most of you know that our younger 6 children are all blessings through adoption. We didn't go through a private agency. We chose to go through the Foster Care System. This choice scared so many people. Some of the things said were "You won't know anything about their birth families", "What if there is something that you can't 'fix' within the child?" and the one question, that still, to do this day bothers me is, "Aren't the children in Foster Care beyond help?" Our oldest daughter was 15 yrs old at the time that we began the adoption process and even she was asked these bizarre questions by her peers. For us, we couldn't imagine not going through this process. Now, I'm not saying that we didn't have fears but we knew that with love and lots of patience, we, as a family, could get through any challenge that our 'children in waiting' could throw our way.
We didn't have to wait very long before our family started coming together. We were well aware of the struggles ahead and we knew that is wasn't going to be easy. For those that doubted, we felt we needed to prove to them that these 'Broken Children' with the 'Unknown Pasts' were worthy of not only our love but were also deserving of a fresh start. Ghosts of the past could be put to rest and a bright future was at their fingertips.
Our children have proven time and time again, what love, stability and just plain ol' happiness can do for a child. If they were, as friends and family described, 'broken' before, there surely is no sign of it now. I think this is why this news story has bothered me so much. I question what has happened in this child's home. What happened to her that would cause so much anger and what, if any, did her mother do to get her help. I say this because, this type of anger doesn't happen all at once. There had to have been other situations that would have set off an alarm in this mother's head. Was she in denial? Did she just brush it off as typical behavior? I can't wrap my mind around it. It's proof to me that these so called 'broken' children don't exist only in Foster Care but are in many homes, in many walks of life and with their birth families. If I learned anything from this story it's that we all can influence a child's life and hopefully change their future.
Hug your children today people. Thank the Lord that you haven't had to suffer such a tragedy and more so than anything else, if you have a chance to give back, get involved in a child's life that you feel needs more stability, more love and more happiness.
No comments:
Post a Comment