Saturday morning started off with cinnamon rolls and coffee! Matt's favorite!
We went to PATH from 8:30 until 12:00. This week was the extreme opposite from last class. It was such an answer to prayer. I want to say thank you to those who read my blog and prayed for the situation.
The instructor started the class by saying we needed to respect eveyone's time. Every week we feel out an evaluation sheet at the end of the class. Apparently Matt and I were not the only ones who felt as if last weeks class was a waste of time. She indicated numerous evaluations pointed out the personal stories/questions were excessive. She requested for anyone who had a question/personal situation to write it down and ask her one on one after class.
The class flowed so much smoother. I still do not think the instructor covered everything she wanted to due to amount of information in this weeks lesson, but it was so much more productive.
The topics this week was sexual abuse, dealing with loss/grief, attachment issues, and so forth. As you can imagine, it was a very disturbing week.
In all honesty, when I hear about sexual abuse, my reaction is retaliation and rescue. However, this attitude is NOT Christ-like. From the movie October Baby a statement was made that you "hate the crime, not the criminal." This was perfect exposure for what I was about to hear the next morning.
Children who are victims of sexual abuse deal with more psychological issues than anyone could ever imagine. Children have trust issues, unusual triggers (such as tickling and hugs), attachment issues, privacy issues, unusual sexual behavior and so forth.
I told Matt in the car as we were leaving I was not prepared to hear all of that today. I have never heard situations from any of our foster/adoption resources of any situation remotely close to some of the examples given in the class. I know God would not give me more than I could handle, but I told Matt I did not think I was emotionally stable to handle children who come from this kind of environment. There are so many issues to address other than neglect/loss/grief. Because of the age range we are going to set, there is a good chance we would not have a child with this kind of past, but I realize sexual abuse can occur at any age.
Please pray for those children who RIGHT NOW are dealing with traumatic life experiences. Pray for peace and hope that only the Lord can provide. Pray the child learns to trust/respect adults again and realize being sexually abused does not define who they are as a person. It is never the fault of an innocent child, but many kids believe it was their fault.
There is NO reason a 6, 9, 13 year old should be dealing with emotions and scars from sexual abuse. Sexual abuse does happen....every day....and usually by close family members. I had a 9 yo patient at St. Jude who ended up contracting HIV due to sexual abuse from a grandparent. Oh it just makes me cringe to think about it!!! But I pray for the child and the grandfather who will both deal with the consequences, one psychologically/emotionally/physically and the other legal ramifications of his actions.
I am off my soap box but seriously, I am asking you pray for those children who end up in state custody due to sexual abuse. Many of the children go back to the environment where the sexual abuse was occurring. That is a whole different post for a different day.
My heart is heavy this week thinking about the environment/situations children live in every day.....Oh how blessed I was as a child. I thank God every day for my Christian upbringing.
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