On the way to an appointment, an eight year old said to me, “Everything changes. Why does everything keep changing?” When asked what had changed, he looked at the sign of the gas station that his family once frequented and said, ” The sign used to be mostly yellow and now it is blue.” Tears began to flow down his cheek. I asked, “Why is it bad that the sign is now blue?” He continued to cry as he said, “It will never be the same again. We can’t go home and our mom and dad is moving. I’ll never get to see my home again. I’ll never go back to that gas station with my mom and dad.”
Often children will say, “I miss my mom and dad”, but we forget the little things that they miss. They miss their favorite toys, and their special blanket that they slept with every night. They miss the smell of their home or their mom’s favorite perfume. They miss playing with their cousins and visiting their grandparents. Most children in foster care miss their “old school” and now have to learn to make new friends at their “new school”. They miss their favorite teacher that helped them with the really hard subjects. They miss their neighbor who always gave them cookies after school. They miss familiar places that can only be revisited in their memories.
As houseparents or caregivers, we try to ease the hurt and pain of our children by giving extra hugs or finding time for special one on one attention. It’s not always easy and sometimes their tears bring us to tears. The hope we have is in Christ and we pray that the Comforter will bring His perfect peace to the hearts and minds of our children.
Your stories always touch my heart! Thanks for all you do to make life a little brighter for our kids.