Tag Archives: foster

The New Toddler

A new baby joined our family this week. She officially entered the world of toddlerhood on June 18 by turning one. Before she was placed in our home we were alerted that she had delays. That didn’t come as a surprise as most of the children placed in our care have delays of some sort. The news was that she wasn’t crawling. I don’t know if the workers who were watching her weren’t paying attention or she didn’t have anything to reach for, but she has been crawling short distances here. She likes to pull herself up to standing holding … Continue reading →

Child Left With Caretaker is Dead

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Last Saturday, a seventeen year old Dallas mother of two left her children at the home of Detress Richmond in order to go to work. She needed money and she had been hired to braid hair. Richmond had assured her that she would watch her two daughters. The decision to rely on the woman’s promise turned out to be tragic. A nine year old boy, who lived in the home, stabbed her two year old daughter to death with a knife. Apparently, no adult was in the home. Richmond left her fifteen year old daughter in charge of at least … Continue reading →

Child Neglect: An Update

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Yesterday, I reported that two young girls had been found aimlessly walking the streets. The children, one and two years old respectively, were naked. Police picked the girls up. On returning them to their home, officials found that the home was in such bad shape that the girls, along with two siblings ages six months and seven years, were all placed in foster care. State investigators had visited the home in March and found nothing wrong. More facts have come out today. The mother, who is 25 years old, suffers from extreme depression and seems to be unable to take … Continue reading →

A Tragic Adoption Experience

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Two years ago, the nation was shocked by the story of the adoptive mother who took her children to Nigeria and left them there. One of the children, who is now a teenager, has given an interview to tell her side of the story. When she was five years old, she and her three siblings were removed from their home because of physical abuse by a drug addicted parent. They spent three years in the state foster system. Then she and her siblings were adopted by a lady named Mercury Liggins. Apparently, there was a trial period for the adoption … Continue reading →

Gotcha Day #3

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By May, 2003, my wife and I had taken into our home two foster children, ages two months and 30 months. We had met their two other brothers, ages four and a half and 18 months, at the twice a month family visits with their mother. We had indicated to the state and our adoption agency that we would also take the other two boys. All of us were worried that the foster home that had them was not meeting their needs. On May 5, the state worker called to say that she would bring the boys to our house … Continue reading →

Foster Children Need Love

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Sometimes foster children come into a home so distressed and traumatized that it is difficult to imagine how they could ever adjust to anything but institutional living. On May 5, 2003, Walter and Jacob came to live with us. We already had their two brothers, Tommy and Caleb. Jacob was very difficult to handle. We now had, Caleb, four months old, Jacob, 18 months old, Tommy, 30 months old, and, Walter, who was four and a half. Tommy was having hysterical, screaming rages quite regularly. Walter was very hyperactive and obviously anxious. Jacob could not get along with any of … Continue reading →

Should You Use an Adoption Agency?

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If you are thinking about adopting children from your state’s foster system, you will need to decide whether to deal directly with the state agency or to use an adoption agency as an intermediary. This article will discuss the pros and cons of this decision based upon my experience. We did use an adoption agency and we are glad that we did. The social worker from the state agency was not always honest with us. Her main concern seemed to be limiting the amount of time that she had to spend on the case. This tendency always seemed to affect … Continue reading →