Holding on to Hope

We do our work with vision. And we do our work with hope. 

We who are foster care advocates will have days of disappointment. We will weather waves of grief over those we have lost, and those we worry that we are losing. 

We will also have experiences that fill us with deep, fierce - and, in that moment, fearless - joy. 

There will be times when we are able:

• To witness a wrong that we experienced and be a force in that moment for making things better. 
• To empower the formerly voiceless and listen to the amazing and powerful things that they have to say, and the recommendations and solutions that they have to offer. 
• To help plan and facilitate impactful opportunities, and witness the synergy of bringing others together. 
• To see the smiles on their faces and feel the warmth of love fill our heart. 
• And so much more.

Let those moments imprint themselves upon your heart. Capture them in photographs. Hold them tight in your heart and remember them when a day seems dark and the world feels full of apathy. 

We - have - hope.

Getting to Spend Time With The Kiddos

 Link to more photos.

Edward's birthday gift

Edward making LEGOs

Frannie and Carly

William: "I can chew my hair now!"

Ginny loving her ice cream.

The most beautiful, useful and timely gift I have received all year

 

If...

Childhood abuse and abandonment - and the wound of perfectionism

Reading this insight about how perfectionism is an inner wound that begins in childhood reminded me of my favorite quote since college by H. S. Kushner about not having to be perfect to be loved:

Our lives create a ripple effect...

Advocacy: Creating the Things We Wish Existed

This quote captures part of the heart of advocacy: Creating the things we wished existed. Throughout the ongoing history of Ohio foster care youth and alumni advocacy from 2006-now, this has happened in so many beautiful, powerful ways. 

The creation of the OHIO YAB, ACTION Ohio, the Ohio Reach intiative, and the Columbus State Scholar Network. The establishment of the Bridges program, the Columbus Scholar House for Former Foster Youth, and the Youth Ombudsman Office. 

Creating and orchestrating events and opportunities, such as cooking classes, statewide life skills and leadership events, self care summits, Statehouse Days, Three Days on the Hill, College for the Day, COTA bus scavenger hunts, and Thanksgiving Together gatherings. 

And so much more…

Sometimes creation comes with complications. Sometimes there can be a “willful forgetfulness” that youth have authored something. Sometimes barriers come up regarding access to a resource that youth themselves created. Sometimes, by the time. young leaders create something, they themselves are unable to access that resource due to eligibility barriers: “I’m too old now.”  Sometimes amazing resources - like HEMI - are “sunsetted,” without ever providing an adequate reason why. 

We continue to move forward and we continue to to create powerful, beautiful things. Because the need is there - and we can see it. Because the solution is there - and we can find it. Because the resource is needed - and it MUST be created.

Advocates are artists.

Hubby Love

It’s interesting to me to think about how my personal timeline intersected with our national one. In 1999, the year I met the man who would become my husband, this federal act was passed. And it was the Chafee Act that prompted states to create Youth Advisory Boards, as well as making other services and resources possible. 

What Is To Give Light Must Endure Burning

Something I’ve been pondering lately is how foster care advocacy work can intersect with both primary trauma and secondary traumatic stress. 

We had a training at the library recently, and the trainer said:

• We need to normalize compassion fatigue and secondary traumatic stress as part of our work.
• It would be inhuman if we learned about and experienced such painful things and had no emotions about it or didn’t care. 

The next step is figuring out what to do, to care for ourselves when that happens. Not IF. But WHEN.