In going through today's readings, I couldn't help but think about our two guest speakers from last week. Both Caitlin and Jesse had very interesting stories to tell which were significantly different from any story we have read about so far.
Jesse's story surprised me the most. First of all, I was surprised to hear that he had 8 other biological sisters. From the age of 2-11, he was in and out of his home, bouncing around to group homes and foster homes. I really like how he mentioned that even though he was constantly moving, it was still a functional family to him. There was always a familiar face wherever he went and he knew that he was loved. I connected this to part of our reading today when Roberts says, "Foster parents were described as 'loving caregivers' who are unfairly prevented by biological parents' rights from developing stable relationships with the children they take in" (113). Though he also did love his biological family, it seemed like his foster family was his true "home." It was interesting to then hear that he was not allowed to be adopted by his foster family since the parents were too old. Instead, he was adopted by a single mother in MN within a week. Roberts says, "Congress assumed that permanence and safety came from adoption, not from reunifying children with their parents" (113). Jesse's story is a bit different since his mother was dead and his father was no longer in the picture, but the adoption that he experienced was probably the worst option for him. I was mainly just surprised to hear that this woman was even granted the ability to adopt in thinking about all of the policies and procedures that need to be taken care of before adoptions today. Clearly, this adoption was not good for him and he would have been much better off staying in foster care.
Caitlin's story on the other hand is much different from that of Jesse's. She was only in foster care for the first 2 years of her life but it ended up working the way it was supposed to. I think her story can relate the most to Roberts's thoughts on terminating parental rights and losing patience with substance-abusing parents. The main problem with Caitlin's story is that her mom kept leaving her at foster care agencies while the rest of her family just wanted her to sign over her rights so that one of them could adopt Caitlin. Roberts says, "Terminating parental rights is seen, in the words of Senator Chafee, as ' the critical first step in moving children into permanent placements'" (150). Everything worked out in the end for Caitlin, but her family certainly went through some rough spots during that time.
The main question that I thought of after the speakers last class was about Caitlin's story. She mentioned at one point that her name used to be Haley. My question is why was her name changed, and at what point in her life did that happen?
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ReplyDeleteGreat job! I really like that you connected the two speakers you heard in class to the reading assigned for the week. The connections are clear and concise, as well.
My class was only able to hear from Jesse, which was interesting, but from the sounds of it the contrast to Caitlin’s story would have been an added bonus. When Jesse was speaking to our class, he did not mention the number of siblings he had but he did say that he had other older siblings. One of the questions we asked him was ‘Did all of your siblings go into foster care with you and if so did you stay together for the majority of the time?’ Jesse explained that because his siblings were older, they knew to run away when they heard that the social worker was coming so they did not get taken away, like Jesse was. I thought this was interesting because the social worker and police did not sound like they tried very hard to find the siblings when they ran away, considering Jesse said they didn’t run much further than a block or two.
Another point that you touched on was the fact that Jesse’s foster parents were told they could not adopt him after his mother passed away because they were too old. I think this is ridiculous because at what age is someone too old to parent, care, and love a child? I think that Jesse would have had an easier transition to the adopted life, if the state of Texas allowed his foster family to adopt him. Instead they sent him to an unstable and continuously moving family who he had talked to on the phone two times.
Overall, I think you made good points and connections to the readings.
Jen G