Sunday, January 20, 2013

Foster-to-Adopt and Diapers

This week at work I was in a hearing in which an 18 month old child who had lived with a foster family since birth was ordered to be sent to live with relatives in another state. It was legally and maybe ethically the right decision.  The law is clear that relatives have a priority over foster families.  If a child in our extended family needed a home, I would much rather the child be placed with one of our relatives than placed outside of the family. I agreed with the decision.  That said, the foster family was there and you could tell that they were devastated.  They had taken the baby in through the foster-to-adopt program that is supposed to screen in babies who aren't likely to be reunited with their original families, they had loved that baby from day 1, and you could tell that to them, he was their son.  People ask us (especially me) if we've considered the foster care system and I truly have.  But I see these cases all the time and I see what it does to people.  If I thought it was hard to have Ida for not even three full days and then give her back, I can't imagine what 18 months would have done to us.

In lighter news, I thought you readers might like to see the little cloth diapers we are going to be using someday when we match.

  So freaking cute, right?!?

1 comment:

Christine said...

We use those diapers. Finn has the one on the right. Love them!