Countryboywwc
January 5th, 2008, 12:44 AM
To all the foster parents and to those who are considering to become a foster parent:
Almost ten years ago, I emancipated from the “system” after being in it for over eleven years. I was taken away from my biological mother at the tender age of six due to sexual and physical abuse. Through no fault of her own, the court ruled that she was an unfit mother. You see, my mother is severely mentally challenged.
I remember very clearly the day that “they” came and got me. After my mother left clawlike scratch marks going up and down my face, CPS (and a police cruiser) came and picked me up. I ended up in an emergency shelter; thus beginning my nightmare journey through the system.
All total, I was in around 40-50 different placements ranging from group homes, mental hospitals and lockdowns. I have seen the teenage murders, the rapists, the gangsters, the druggies, and the severely mentally challenged. Every type of abuse that you can put an adjective in front of, I have been through in the “system”. Many of which, happened before I was placed in my first foster home at the age of ten.
In the eleven (nearly twelve) years that I was in the “system” and the places I was in only two foster homes. Yes you read that right: two foster homes. The first one came when I was nearly ten years old. By this time, I had been in the system for nearly four years and in nearly twenty different placements. One placement, Camelot Care Center, I was repeatedly raped by older residents.
After being in this horrible place, I went to my first foster home. As you can imagine, I had severe behavioral problems but they took the risk. They dared to love a ‘nobody child’. In all honesty, I was a nightmare for them to deal with. By the age of ten, I had been through more pain and suffering then most people have to deal with in a lifetime. After nearly two years, they let me go because my older foster brother (their own son) was killed in truck accident on his way home from school.
I went back in the ‘system’ where I rotted away for the next year or so before my second foster family came by. I was their very first foster child and they were quite naïve about everything in regards to problems faced by foster kids. However, they truly opened their hearts to me.
They saw the hurt and wounded kid who was distrustful of everyone and everything. They saw the kid who would get in fights at school, cause trouble in the neighborhood, and a embarrassment to them wherever they went. But they loved me all the more. I still remember my foster mother, Diane Fields, coming to school with me and pulling up a desk to sit next to me DURING the class.
At one point, they wanted to adopt me but could not since the state had not done their job and terminated the rights of my mother. Even though I had been in the system for nearly eight years by then. The foster care agency that I was in soon got fed up with me and forcibly took me away from my foster parents. I guess I was around fourteen by then. The next four years, I bounced from placement to placement
When I turned eighteen, I aged out of the system. I had less then one year of high school education, no family, no money…..nothing. Everyone thought I would be dead within a year, in prison, or homeless. But because of the love that I received at the two foster homes that I was at, I overcame all odds.
During the past ten years, I have completed high school (GED), graduated from a four year college with a BSW (Social Work), and I have worked on Capital Hill. Currently I am teaching in Thailand as a math teacher (yes, I do plan on coming back to the states).
All of this was possible was because two families dared to do the impossible……..to love a nobodies child. Thank you so very very much. I want to thank each and every foster parent from the bottom of my heart for being foster parents. The battles that you wage can have a lasting impression on a child life. The worst kids that you ‘know’ that will does not have a ghost of a chance to succeed could very well surprise you. But they need on important investment: love. Thank you to all the foster parents who truly love THEIR kids.
As we go into the New Year, I want each one of you to recommit yourselves to YOUR kids. The next time that you see them, hug them as tightly as you can and tell them that you love them.
To those that are considering foster care / adoption: we need you. The reason why it took the system nearly four years to place me with a foster family was because there was a shortage of foster parents. As we speak there are around 580,000 kids in the “system”. Many of them have good foster homes but there are a lot who do not. There is a shortage of foster parents. If one family from every church in America decided to become foster parents, there would be a shortage of foster children instead of foster parents.
As we start the New Year, please pray and consider to become a foster parent. Yes, it is tough. Yes the pay is low. Yes there is a lot of red tape to cross. But the rewards are immense. Even though I was the Fields first foster child and they fought tooth and nail to keep me, they later became foster parents to dozens of the high risk youth while adopting several of them. They retired a couple years ago but they were voted foster parents of the year twice in the State of Tennessee.
Warmly yours
Jeffery Lynn Lawson
Ps……if you have contact with Billy/Diane Fields or know how to get ahold of them, please pm me. I lost contact with them about a year ago. They moved to South Carolina
Almost ten years ago, I emancipated from the “system” after being in it for over eleven years. I was taken away from my biological mother at the tender age of six due to sexual and physical abuse. Through no fault of her own, the court ruled that she was an unfit mother. You see, my mother is severely mentally challenged.
I remember very clearly the day that “they” came and got me. After my mother left clawlike scratch marks going up and down my face, CPS (and a police cruiser) came and picked me up. I ended up in an emergency shelter; thus beginning my nightmare journey through the system.
All total, I was in around 40-50 different placements ranging from group homes, mental hospitals and lockdowns. I have seen the teenage murders, the rapists, the gangsters, the druggies, and the severely mentally challenged. Every type of abuse that you can put an adjective in front of, I have been through in the “system”. Many of which, happened before I was placed in my first foster home at the age of ten.
In the eleven (nearly twelve) years that I was in the “system” and the places I was in only two foster homes. Yes you read that right: two foster homes. The first one came when I was nearly ten years old. By this time, I had been in the system for nearly four years and in nearly twenty different placements. One placement, Camelot Care Center, I was repeatedly raped by older residents.
After being in this horrible place, I went to my first foster home. As you can imagine, I had severe behavioral problems but they took the risk. They dared to love a ‘nobody child’. In all honesty, I was a nightmare for them to deal with. By the age of ten, I had been through more pain and suffering then most people have to deal with in a lifetime. After nearly two years, they let me go because my older foster brother (their own son) was killed in truck accident on his way home from school.
I went back in the ‘system’ where I rotted away for the next year or so before my second foster family came by. I was their very first foster child and they were quite naïve about everything in regards to problems faced by foster kids. However, they truly opened their hearts to me.
They saw the hurt and wounded kid who was distrustful of everyone and everything. They saw the kid who would get in fights at school, cause trouble in the neighborhood, and a embarrassment to them wherever they went. But they loved me all the more. I still remember my foster mother, Diane Fields, coming to school with me and pulling up a desk to sit next to me DURING the class.
At one point, they wanted to adopt me but could not since the state had not done their job and terminated the rights of my mother. Even though I had been in the system for nearly eight years by then. The foster care agency that I was in soon got fed up with me and forcibly took me away from my foster parents. I guess I was around fourteen by then. The next four years, I bounced from placement to placement
When I turned eighteen, I aged out of the system. I had less then one year of high school education, no family, no money…..nothing. Everyone thought I would be dead within a year, in prison, or homeless. But because of the love that I received at the two foster homes that I was at, I overcame all odds.
During the past ten years, I have completed high school (GED), graduated from a four year college with a BSW (Social Work), and I have worked on Capital Hill. Currently I am teaching in Thailand as a math teacher (yes, I do plan on coming back to the states).
All of this was possible was because two families dared to do the impossible……..to love a nobodies child. Thank you so very very much. I want to thank each and every foster parent from the bottom of my heart for being foster parents. The battles that you wage can have a lasting impression on a child life. The worst kids that you ‘know’ that will does not have a ghost of a chance to succeed could very well surprise you. But they need on important investment: love. Thank you to all the foster parents who truly love THEIR kids.
As we go into the New Year, I want each one of you to recommit yourselves to YOUR kids. The next time that you see them, hug them as tightly as you can and tell them that you love them.
To those that are considering foster care / adoption: we need you. The reason why it took the system nearly four years to place me with a foster family was because there was a shortage of foster parents. As we speak there are around 580,000 kids in the “system”. Many of them have good foster homes but there are a lot who do not. There is a shortage of foster parents. If one family from every church in America decided to become foster parents, there would be a shortage of foster children instead of foster parents.
As we start the New Year, please pray and consider to become a foster parent. Yes, it is tough. Yes the pay is low. Yes there is a lot of red tape to cross. But the rewards are immense. Even though I was the Fields first foster child and they fought tooth and nail to keep me, they later became foster parents to dozens of the high risk youth while adopting several of them. They retired a couple years ago but they were voted foster parents of the year twice in the State of Tennessee.
Warmly yours
Jeffery Lynn Lawson
Ps……if you have contact with Billy/Diane Fields or know how to get ahold of them, please pm me. I lost contact with them about a year ago. They moved to South Carolina