Let’s Talk Foster Care
According to ifoster.org, there were approximately 440,000 children in the USA in foster care in 2019. About 30,000 per year age out of the system and are forced to care for themselves. Within four years, 50% have no earnings, and the rest earn below the poverty level. Only around 26% have access to a computer at home. The average age of children in foster care is 6.5 years old.
I was born during World War II. With a father overseas and a mother suffering a severe thyroid illness, I was placed in foster care through the Children’s Aid Society in Buffalo, NY, for about three years. During my stay in foster care, my mother was only allowed visitation once every two weeks. At age five, I returned to live with my parents for a time, and after their separation, returned to foster care and boarding school.
As an adult, I understand the necessity of the separation, but as a child, I struggled with feelings of abandonment that never completely went away. It’s been my experience that there is always a need for reassurance that my significant other really loves me, still loves me, will always love me. . . It seems that there is forever a part of me that is missing, a link, a bonding – there is an emptiness deep inside that fails to be filled, regardless of the love of one’s partner.
The children in my book Sací Kids: The Magic of Red are in foster care. They’re fortunate that they have been placed in a good home. Many children are not. Truthfully speaking, I think I fail in my writing to fully project the needs of each child. I think their characters need to be fleshed out more thoroughly so that their growth is more obvious. A truly good writer would have done that. I’m just a newbie with a lot to learn. Expensive lessons – self-publishing is not for those on a fixed income! So, buy my book! It’s imperfect, but it’s from the heart.
