Shocking title? Not as shocking as the conclusions that may be drawn based on your reading of this article (http://bit.ly/2fdkiV) about Patrick and Karen Hankins. I was shocked myself when I read it. Did you catch what they mention at the beginning? That he was in foster care. Foster care is a great service offered to care for children and I applaud the families that give of themselves to care for children that end up in “the system” due to unfortunate incidents. There are many ways children can end up in foster care, one of which is their parents passing away without properly planning for their childrens’ care. Did he end up in foster care because his parents didn’t plan? Would they have planned if they knew, ultimately, how his life would turn out? Would planning for his care with someone he knew (family or friend) made a difference? I don’t know the answers to these questions. What I do know is that planning can be be the difference between a child’s “success” and their “failure.” What do you think?
December 24, 2009 at 6:35 pm
Planning IS important…but it’s also important to understand the comorbidities he was locked and loaded with from birth.
Many children in foster care are FASD (Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder). This means that their birthmother drank and drugged when they were in utero. When you assess who would drink and drug during pregnancy you will begin to see how the children born of these folks not only suffer the brain damage caused by the exposure – but that they come into the world with the legacy of being locked and loaded for all the mental illness (bipolarity, manic depression, etc) that their birthmother suffered that drove her to drink and drug during pregnancy.
FASD is not an easy condition to deal with- never mind the comorbidities. We adopted a beautiful little girl who was only hours old, who has since been diagnosed with FASD, Bipolarity, and a bunch of other acronyms. She is ONLY 6 years old. We love her, but she is a very damaged little person who struggles daily with keeping her feet on the ground. See our families account of raising a child with Mental Illness… at http://www.gertz-pileofideas.blogspot.com