PATH is EYE OPENING

Is the class eye opening? no
Are the people attending the class eye opening? yes


The class on Saturday was 3 hours. What we accomplished in 3 hours I could not tell you. I am not even sure what the topic was supposed to be.
However, a video was shown in which told the personal story of Shane Salter.
Check him out: www.shanesalter.com

He is a successful product of the foster care system and he has an emotional, thought provoking story. The personal story shared with us is not near as detailed in the youtube video, but it tells the story nonetheless. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGCjW4dXE9o

To give a brief explanation the class is filled with kinship attendees and non kinship attendees.
The kinship families are families in which may already have a child living in their home such as grandchild, neice/nephew, or even close family friend (does not have to be blood related) in state's custody. Basically I think they have to go through PATH to meet all legal requirements by the state.

Kinship situations takes a totally different spin. For example, lets say an Aunt gains custody of her sister's children. The court says,"NO CONTACT IS TO BE MADE BETWEEN THE BIRTH PARENT AND HER CHILDREN."
It is holiday time....everyone goes to grandmas house for Christmas.....well either the birth mother or the aunt with the two kids cannot attend the family celebration of Christmas. Do you see where this could destroy a family? The birth mother is resentful and angry because she cant go to her own familie's Christmas, nor can she see her own children.

When you are non-kinship, then these kind of situations rarely happen because the birth parents will be complete strangers to Matt and I. Our prayer is we will be able to minister to birth parents if safe for the child and legally allowable, but we would never have an internal personal family issue to add complication to the matter.

The mixing of kinship and non-kinship is not practical but does this really matter to the state when they are on a minimum budget? The PATH class is free so Matt and I should be thankful for this even if it is not the most ideal arrangement.

Let me give an example from this past Saturday:
Instructor starts discussing what is on topic to discuss...
Kinship family member raises hand and says, "Well we are in a situation where 2 boys of a young female is in our care due to the mother sexually molesting her two sons and gave them a sexually transmitted disease. She spent a year in jail for this because courts had proven she did it, but due to mental disorder she was aquitted and is out of jail. Now why does the courts not do this and why does the courts not do that? Do we have to transport the birth mother to and from meetings, court hearings, and so forth? Do we have to allow contact between sons and birth mother?" ETC!!!

Just in case you are curious of the details: the kinship family is a lesbian couple who actually raised the birth mother......I have a hard time understanding why these children are in the care of this "family" as well.

And before you know it we have spent 30 minutes on this one situation......the "what if" scenarios go on and on with individual situations. There is a grandfather raising grandchildren due to mother being in jail and dad not on birth certificate. There is a couple wanting to raise their neice because dad is in jail and mother is deceased. Kinship personal stories could fill up several blog posts, but I am asking you pray for the families we are in the class with.

And pray for Matt and I because we are burdened for our city. I am not naieve to the fact the evil exists ....I am just having an eye opening experience to who the state allows to take care of children.....kinship or not. Would YOU want the family I mentioned to be taking care of your children or any child for that matter? Oh how I am wrestling with God over some of the issues brought up in the class.


On a lighter note, one family in the PATH class I want to highlight is an African American couple about our age. Matt and I are interested in learning more about their story and being a support system for each other through the process. We are planning to have lunch with them next Sat after PATH. Pray we are able to establish a strong connection/relationship. We are looking forward to what might come from this friendship.
I will let you know next week how lunch goes!