another point of view

            Hi, my name is Sandy.  I have been in the state’s care for three, almost four years.  When I first got in to the foster care system I stayed with a friend of my family.  However, it did not last long before I got taken from her.  I then came to the Kaufman shelter.  The things they taught me when I was there over a year and a half ago helped me change my life.  During that time I became very attached to Mr. Rick and Mrs. LaReta.  Some of the things they did for me were to help me understand what I was going through and what would be going on with me.  When my Caseworker called me and said that she had a permanent placement lined up for me I cried.  I felt as if I was getting ripped away from my mother and father all over again.  Mr. Rick and Mrs. LaReta told me that I could stay in touch with them. 

 Christmas that same year, away from my family, I received a package.  It was from the shelter.  I was so very excited to hear from them.  I thought they had forgotten about me but in the card I got from them they reassured me that they missed their “Christmas baby”.  Mr. Rick called me that. 

As the time went by, I moved on.  I went to many different places.  In one year I had been to over twenty different placements.  One day I was thinking about all the different places and people I had met.   I never forgot the shelter and what I had learned while I stayed there.  So when I ran in to some problems with a foster parent I was living with at the time, I went to school and called my Caseworker and explained to her what was going on.  I asked her to call Mr. Rick and Mrs. LaReta and see if they had an opening.  They took me in once again.  Only this time, they got an extra package, I was six months pregnant.  They had no problem with me and the fact I was expecting.  I was still in shock with everything that was going on with me.  One night Mrs. LaReta sat me down gave me a talk about the changes I would be going through and what to expect when the time came.  So now I am going on my seventh month and Mr. Rick and Mrs. LaReta are just as caring and loving as they were when I came the very first time when I was fourteen.  I am very proud to tell people when I go out in public that I live at the Kaufman County Children Shelter.

 So I can and will tell you one thing, Mr. Rick and Mrs. LaReta and the staff at the shelter, are the kind of people that make the system and the fact that you have to move all the time; Well I’ll say it like this, when you leave you know that there is always going to be someone to love you no matter where you go or what happens.

            Written by:

            Sandy, (16 years now and baby due September 2002)

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