Tag Archives: foster parents

05.12.19
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I Used To Hate Mother’s Day

I Used to Hate Mother's Day - Anchor Of Promise

 

I used to hate Mother’s Day.  Did you hear that? “Used” to! I would see all of the mother’s surrounded by their smiling and laughing children of all ages giving honor to their mom.  These children would present signs, crafts, give gifts, and bestow beautiful words of love and respect onto their mother.

Me?  Nada!  I dreaded this once a year holiday.  Why? Because there were crises left and right, ongoing drama, heartless thanks, and a plethora of other problems toppled on each other.  Instead of feeling I just came out of a word entrenched spa enjoying the accolades of praise for being the best mom, I was instead left in tears, guilt, shame, hurt, and pain for being a mom to a teen with serious issues.  

I envied other moms.  I was jealous of how they spent time with their families enveloped by so much love it would burst like the Fourth of July fireworks.  Unlike that moment, I stayed in bed with the covers over my head wishing I could start life over. Did I say I hated Mother’s Day? Continue reading →

09.09.14
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She Thought They Were Just Being Nice

Foster teens who have been in crisis after crisis have a very difficult time adapting and feeling loved.  Generally, they are more exposed to lifelong attachment issues than other teens.  This is the story of one young lady who has been broken many times and how the foster family wanted her to know how valuable she was.  I would suggest having a few tissues handy.  It is very powerful.

08.24.14
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The Hole of Abandonment

The Hole of Abandonment - Anchor Of Promise

Having so many losses in a child’s life naturally alters their teenage years into adulthood. The need for love is so traumatic that it doesn’t matter the cost involved in getting that love even if it means deceiving themselves. Teens will crave attention, find themselves involved in addictive patterns, and create problems that can become a danger to their welfare.  It doesn’t matter if they are adoptees, fostered or biological.

Before you know it, you are in the midst of a crisis. Is your teen having sex to have a child so that they can retrieve the love that they didn’t get when they were younger? Is your teen gravitating to older men or women for a relationship? Are they constantly on the internet finding and connecting with people to fill that hole of abandonment that they have struggled with for years? Do they show addictive behavior in order to achieve the goal of feeling loved? Or worse yet, crave attention so badly that they would hurt someone else to get it.

Such was the case of 12-year-old Jamarion of Michigan, who stabbed a friend and told a witness ‘I want to die. I don’t want to be on this earth anymore.’ He says Jamarion told him that he lashed out because he had ‘taken many pills’ and nobody loved him. The witness further said the first emergency personnel went to the playground to help the victim. This upset the boy. ‘Hello. I’m right here. You’re going the wrong way,’ Jamarion shouted as officers arrived. Continue reading →

07.27.14
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You Didn’t Birth Me!

You Didn't Birth Me - Anchor Of Promise

“I will find a way to leave. You are not my mom and dad!” she said. Listening and not responding, we let her continue. “You didn’t birth me. You don’t know how I feel. If you did, you would let me go.”

My heart broke for her that day. All I did was correct her in something she did. That is what all parents do. They correct their children and teens for many different reasons, all for the good. But this wasn’t a normal situation, and for many who have adopted or cared for foster children, they understand this.

Sitting around a table of other women at a conference last year, a parent was sharing how she had to buckle down on her daughter and really let her have it for something she did wrong. I was thinking to myself as she was talking that I could never respond to my child in the same manner. But before I even finished my thought, the woman across from her stated my exact words and she began to tell her own story.

Continue reading →

05.11.14
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God Blessed Me with 2 Broken Hearts

God Blessed Me with 2 Broken Hearts - Anchor Of Promise

They came from orphanages in a far off land. For one child, the back and forth motion helped stimulate her physical and emotional being as if she was rocking to the beat of a song. She cried after each 3 bottled meals a day at 9 months: One bottle of chicken broth, one bottle of tea, and lastly a bottle of bread floating in water.

There were twenty-five to thirty children per worker in a room who hardly touched them other than to change their soiled cloth diapers.  This was the most attention they received for the entire day. After laying in the diaper for hours and hours, they would be stripped and rinsed off in ice cold water and left with what looked like cigarette burns below their waist and onto their bottoms from the dirty clothes.

Her sister at 27 months old, didn’t know any language or even how to crawl or walk. Tears would flow after every meal given to her. Her fears of not knowing if she would get more food frightened her and would cause her to hoard and steal if necessary. Continue reading →