Two Years After Being Put In Foster Care, Forgiveness Is Still Out Of Reach

Mary’s backyard. (Sofia Rudin/The Public’s Radio)

Kids in foster care are often coping with the aftermath of abuse or neglect, along with the added trauma of being removed from their home. They’re grappling with this past, while living in the shadow of an uncertain future. The Public’s Radio is telling their stories in our series, Living In Limbo: Foster Families And Their Stories. Over the past two days, we’ve introduced you to Mary and her four foster kids. Many parts of their life together are getting easier with time. But the kids are still learning to make sense of the circumstances that brought this foster family together.

Mary: The little one – when they were all getting in the car, everybody was crying, but she was waving, “Goodbye! Goodbye! Goodbye!” The littlest. And then, a few months ago, she said to me, “I shouldn’t have picked you.” I said, “What do you mean?” She said, “Well I should have just stayed with Mommy.” And I said, “Honey, you didn’t pick to go live with me.” I said, “You had to go live with me.” 

It’s been two years since Mary became a foster parent to these four kids. They’re the biological children of two of her nieces. Mary watched her nieces struggle with drug addiction for years. Everything came to a head one night when Child Protective Services decided enough was enough. That’s when Mary showed up at the house and volunteered to take them. Just a few hours later she left with the kids.

Read the rest of this story at The Public’s Radio’s website.