Uh Des, I love ya' dear, but I HATE this particular phrase...."rather see these kids languish in foster care for years, until they reach "maturity" and are thrown into society having never known a stable, secure home, than allow a loving, compassionate person to GIVE them that home"..

That implies that foster parents are and foster families are not families at all and that foster parents simply are in it for the money. Foster care is a less than perfect system and I know you mean that a forever family is more reassuring and healthier overall, but even that is not always the case for some kids. Did you know there are some kids in foster care who don't want to be adopted? It's true. Lots of reasons for that but it's another part of the puzzle tha confronts our social service agencies.

Let's say a child is removed from his bio home for whatever reason and placed in foster care. At that point great damage has already been done especially in children past about age 3. Most of the kids still love the family they had even if Mom was an abusive drunk and Dad was only around occasionally. You'd be amazed at how the kids compensate and make excuses for them. Mom doesn't show at a visit and they make up excuses for her always putting her in the best possible light.

One of the keys to repairing the system as it stands is to intervene in dysfunctional "families" as early as possible and stick to a close timetable for a parent to get over and/or fix the problem. It can and does happen, really. But in many cases it does not and the parent, owing to an antiquated legal system, is able to do barely enough to get the child back and then they fail again in a few months and Johnny is back in foster care. This one really kills the kids and often has them in and out of care until they are teenagers!

Geez, I really go off on this one....so many angles to address and in so many there seems to be no real solution that we can sell.

Spaw