Our new situation

I got a call last week from my mom asking if I can take in a child. He is my cousin and his mother is dying of cancer. His father (my uncle) passed away last year from a drug overdose. I immediately said yes. I was always willing to help out family, even if we are not close...they are still family. Mark and I decided to take the youngest (there are 6 in all, 5 that needed homes) since he would be closer to our childrens age. 3 days after my mom asked if we could take him in...we had him. That happened a lot faster than we expected. He only had a grocery bag of clothes and in that bag there was only 1 decent shirt and 1 decent pair of pants. The rest were stained up shirts and shorts that looked like they were his older brothers. The lady that takes care of their finances gave me some money to get him some clothes and shoes and stuff for school. I went out and got him tons of stuff, so he is all set! His name is Ricky and he is a very well behaved kid. He does what we ask him to with no problem. It has been an easy transition. Hopefully it will stay that way...but this could just be the "honeymoon" period. He thinks he's still going to go back home, but I don't think he is. I have to figure out how at some point to tell him that he won't be. I will wait until I know for sure what is going on. I bought some "get well soon" cards for Ricky to send to his mother. I plan on letting him stay in close contact with his mother and his brothers. Thankfully my mom has 2 of his brothers, so he will get to see them often. Unfortunately 2 of his brothers had to go to foster care. I am feeling extremely guilty about that. Especially after my mom said that they were left on the porch late at night, scared and alone. It sounds like they were placed with a family that only cares about the paycheck that comes with them. I sure hope not. I couldn't stop crying last night. My heart is wrenching for those boys. They need a home. A stable-well adjusted home. I don't want them thinking that we didn't care enough about them to take them too. I hate sitting here thinking that they feel unloved, uncared for, forgotten...when 3 of their brothers got to go with family and here they are placed with people who they don't know and don't care. I just can't take it!! Especially since I got to meet them. They seemed like good kids, just raised in a dysfunctional family. We know some people that foster...so we are going to see if they will take them in. I have great friends that are willing to take them as well, but since they are not family and do not foster...they can't have them. I know that it's a scary and unpredictable situation taking in another child that you have no clue about...but I trust in God that through Him all things are possible. I am trusting God to help out Ricky's older brothers. I would just hate for these boys to grow up, hating the world, because nobody cared enough to do anything for them.

My mom was wondering how people like the ones that got Ricky's brothers are even able to foster when they treat the kids like they do (she heard some pretty bad stories from the boys that she has when they were in foster care before). I had to explain to her that we live in a corrupt world. Where family passes off the responsiblity of taken in kinship off onto the state. And then the state is overwhelmed with children and families that they cannot properly access situations like they need to. It's just all about getting them placed...because that's all they have time for. Everybody, please pray for these boys...that they find homes that will love and care for them, like they deserve. Here is a picture of them all before they got split up:


Hopefully this won't be the last time they get to see each other.