25 Percent of Colorado Foster Kids Being Heavily Medicated?

An article in today's 7-News online addition showed that 25 percent of Colorado foster kids are on psychotropic medications.  (Click For Article)  As a foster parent in Adams County, I have to say that this does not surprise me, but it did make me take a second look at the situation.

What We Know:  Over the past 5 years, we have had over 16 children through our home.  Not one has come to us on medications and we have never requested medication for any of them.  I don't say this to claim that medicating is innately wrong, but Jennifer and I see it as a very last resort.  We have had, and still
have children who have behavioral issues that definitely push into the realm of bipolar and have had friends with children who were schizophrenic and the claim by "officials" (whoever they are) that this is caused by extreme trauma is well founded.  The vast majority of children who have been in our home have been traumatized.  Some of these kids see and experience things that we could only imagine but even those who have not dealt with physical or emotional abuse or even neglect were still traumatized the day they were removed from their parents.  If they are in the system, it's because their little lives are screwed up and their hearts a broken.  Many people see medicating as the only way to overcome the acting out that occures because of this.

Our Take:  The fact is that there is a lot of hurting in our world and the kids in the foster system are the result of this hurt.  A pastor of ours used to say "hurting people hurt people", and it's true.  These kids were hurt because their parents were hurt somewhere along the way and the chain probably doesn't end there.  This is a problem that goes way beyond drugs, therapy or government intervention.  When the Bible says " . . . and the greatest of these is love (I Cor. 13:13) it is speaking to all of us whether you believe in God or not.  The fact is that Love is the only thing that will ever fix this problem.  It takes society reaching out to the hurting and lost and caring for them.  And no, I'm not trying to say that just loving a broken kid will fix them.  It's much deeper than that.  It takes generations of love to overcome and change the paths these kids are on so that the cycle does not continue.

What We Do:  What Jennifer and I do every day and will continue doing as long as we are blessed with the patience to do so is to love these kids, love their birth families and love everyone involved.  Sometimes this means fighting for what is right.  Sometimes this may mean medicating a child.  But it is our belief that God does not want to see any of these kids get lost.  For that reason we will continue working to "Heal these Little Hearts".

Healing Little Hearts

In developing Big Family Solutions, we have come to the conclusion, that we want our business to be so much more than a "Business"!  What is it that we stand for; what drives us to sell what we sell, and write what we write?  Dan's been reading "Art of the Start" by Guy Kawasaki and he talks about mantras.  A mantra can be explained as a word or group of words that is considered as "An expression of being or what is inherently true in you", and reciting it can be crucial to maintaining the order of it.  Wow, that's kind of alot :)   But simply put, we do have something that drives us, and a passion where our hearts lie! With that thought, we have decided that our mantra is "Healing Little Hearts".

As Dan mentioned in our first post, we have 5 girls, with 1 adopted and 2 in the process of adopting (not to mention the 13 other kiddos that we have called ours in the last 4 yrs).  It's not too hard to figure out that our hearts lie in Foster care and Adoption!  

So what does "Healing Little Hearts" mean to us?  Obviously, children that are in foster care or adoptive homes, come from situations that are less than fabulous.  And, no matter what their history is, they have greatly hurting hearts from, at the minimum, their tiny lives being pulled from everything that was familiar.  Every child entering foster care or adoption has a hurting heart and is in dire need of healing.  

Well, needless to say, Dan and I care deeply for these kids and open our home to as many as we can.  However, our desire to help "Heal Little Hearts" goes farther than our four walls.  We understand that we can only physically touch so many Little Hearts, and there are so many more out there.  They are in homes like yours!  We want to help families who foster and adopt to thrive.  What better way to help Heal MORE Little Hearts!!  We need to join together to learn about our hurting kiddos and how to best love them and to support each other in our everyday living in order to do far more than just survive, but to THRIVE!

What Foster Parents Wish Other People Knew

Here is a great post that explains what we as foster parents wish we could explain to the rest of the world.

If your a foster parent, you will enjoy reading this.  If you know a foster parent, I'm sure you will learn something new about them.

What Foster Parents Wish Other People Knew
(Link to Original Post)

Toddlers Helping Around The House

I pulled my basket of clean towels into the living room with the 

intent of folding and guiding my 2 year old, Little S, through sorting & folding. 

What better way to learn folding than with a washcloth!

We had just started, and only got as far as talking about what we were about to tackle, 

when I got called away to the other room. This happens a lot with 5 kids :)

Upon coming back to the living room, I had forgotten what I had been 

pulled from...until my eyes feel upon an empty laundry basket! I gasped!! And 

proclaimed loudly,"Where are the towels?" As I turned toward the kitchen I saw it...

A pile of towels, billowing out of the drawer 

where i keep kitchen washcloths and towels. Again I gasped...starting to say, "who..." Then I caught

 Little S's questioning face. I smiled, knowing exactly 

what had happened! She exclaimed proudly, "I did it!" 

Indeed she had! Every towel from the basket crammed and piled high over her head. She must have worked so hard.

We started pulling swim towels out and I realized that under the mess, she had indeed gotten the white washcloths all piled in the correct spot & the blue ones in the appropriate spot!! 

Well done Little S! This is a great way to learn 

sorting and folding!