In mid-July, our Foster and Adoption services team got to witness a wonderful reunion: siblings in our foster care program joined back together with their birth parents! Their legal custody was returned, the case was closed, and our staff says there wasn’t a dry eye in the courtroom!
We make every effort to return children to a secure and caring home with their birth parents, so this was the best-case scenario! Everyone celebrated a “new beginning” for this family, but what some might not get to hear about is the hard work they did to get there. When our team got this family’s case, the parents had violated their Safety Plan in place, the mother was arrested for a DUI with the youngest child in the vehicle and both parents had a significant history of domestic violence, mental health issues, and substance abuse.
They were very angry and resisted working with us. For a period of time, they called almost daily, and some- times they threatened to go pick up their children at the foster home.
Our staff validated their anger, pain, frustration, and heartbreak while also holding them accountable and being very transparent with the consequences of their actions or inactions. Over time, they grew to trust us, started working on their Service Plan, learned a lot, and worked hard. One of our Foster Care Supervisors says one day the light bulb came on for them and they never looked back.
This growth and progress made this family’s reunion that much sweeter!
