It is truly amazing how resilient humans, especially children, can be!  Children can survive horrific conditions and experiences and still become loving adults if they can get help in time.  It is our job as adults to watch out for each other and to care about those around us.  The most important job we have is to watch out for children our own and others, to call into child protective services if we suspect abuse happening.   If we are wrong about the suspected abuse- good!  but it is better to call in and make a report and be wrong than to think that it is not our job or that someone else will call it in!  

It is so hard to believe what people have done and will continue to do to children.   I wanted to stay in the happy "disney bubble" that was created for me while I lived in Celebration.  I wanted to believe that all parents love and keep their children safe.  I want to believe in fairy tales too but the reality of this world has a much stronger pull than I could ever have imagined.  

It is really easy to get swallowed up in the darkness that you see in foster parenting and adoption.  The key point is not to let that darkness swallow you.  Everyone makes mistakes.   I know that if I were not blessed with the family that I have that things could have been Very different for me.  I could easy gotten into drugs or alcohol or been overwhelmed by being a parent way to young.  That is why it is so very important to not pass judgment on anyone, especially the bio-parents of the kids in the foster care system.  They made mistakes, Big mistakes, but that doesn't mean that they are not human and that they do not deserve love or at least respect.  

Taking the P.R.I.D.E  class (adoptive/foster parent class given by the state of NM) has really opened my eyes to how much i think i can handle as a soon to be big sister of adoptive children and in considering being a teacher.  I look at behaviors in children that before I thought were intolerable and horrible and I have some understanding of the why now.   Instead of making me frustrated or angry I want to help.  Now saying that the first time I find poop smeared on the wall I will probably not be so level headed and calm.