Everybody’s Children

  Imagine you are 7 years old and it is the middle of the night. You are awakened and told to get some things together because you are going somewhere and there’s no way of knowing how long you will be there. You don’t own a suitcase so your clothes are stuffed in black garbage bags. You ask if your mommy can go with you and you are told no. You will be going alone. Tears slide down your cheeks and you start to tremble. The social worker lets you kiss your mother goodbye, and then you and your garbage bag full of clothes are taken to a house you’ve never seen, filled with people you do not know.

  Sound scary? It is, and it is also very real. In America more than half a million children a year are placed in foster care. In Kentucky there are 5,700 foster children. That’s up 50 percent from just five years ago. That’s 5,700 children who need our help. 

  They need us to provide respite care for their foster parents, so they have some time of their own. They need mentors. They need clothes for school and Christmas gifts under a tree. They need volunteers for local foster care associations and the Kentucky Foster Parent Association. They need volunteer tutors and transportation assistants. They need foster and adoptive parents who can give them what every child deserves…a loving family. 

And they need us to care enough to do something more than just talk about the problem.

  If you would like more information about foster care, you can call 1-800-232-KIDS.