In my work as a foster care caseworker, I know of too many cases of birth parents-and sometimes foster & adoptive parents-treating children badly.

I hope this Home the "healthy" children were placed is only temporary and all of these children will be placed in one or possibly two foster homes.

Perhaps the Wichita Children's Home is "homelike", and if so, good. But it seems to me that both sets of these children need a lot of tender loving care in well structured, well monitored foster families. And all the better if these foster families are adoption resources because it sounds to me like both the mother and father who was away on business were at fault. I would really hate for either set of these kids to go back to those parents. And, for that matter-where were extended family members???! The newspaper report says that these girls were 6 & 7 years old. Didn't they go to school? Aren't the schools' teachers, principal, or social worker supposed to report this kind of thing???!! How could anyone not have noticed that these kids were emaciated and that one set of children in that family appeared to be well fed and another set appeared like concentration camp survivors???

Also, I hope that the state or county is going to pay for therapy for all of these kids including play therapy now and other forms of psychological therapy later. Imo, they're gonna need it.

And I meant all of the children...For instance, if he is of average intelligence, the 8 year old at least old enough to know that something was wrong with his siblings not eating when he and his other sister were?

How awful this must have been for him and his sister to know that his other sisters were in the basement starving.

One lesson that can be taken from this-we all must be vigilent when it comes to the well being of all children-not just those children we give birth to.