Wednesday afternoon RFKC 2008
During lunch today a 9 year old girl had a breakdown as the children were served food. She was being comforted by her counselor when I walked over to see if I could help. I asked her, we will call her Suzie for her privacy, what was bothering her. She just cried. I sat with her and her counselor on the couch for a few minutes just letting her cry and then engaged her again asking what was making her cry. Suzie looked up at me and said, between sobs, "I feel like something is missing".
Since Suzie opened up I sensed the need to press a bit further and asked her how long she has been in foster care. I was amazed at what happened next. Suzie began to share with me every detail of her family background, her life before removal from her home, and the actual removal by law enforcement and CPS. She explained everything. I was in shock at the depth of detail and memory she had surrounding this crisis.
Suzie finished her story, we prayed and talked about hope for the restoration of her family. She shared her new-found hope from the Bible lesson on Wednesday ... Jesus helps me with my problems. Again, I was amazed. In the middle of a painful moment, Suzie not only recounted every detail of probably the worst day of her life but she shared her source of hope just embraced earlier the same day. How cool is that?
What I am learning through the incredible journey of RFKC and foster care is that for foster kids it is all in the details. They remember everything. Therefore, everything has the potential for transformational impact. This is purpose of RFKC - creating positive memories. We replace the negative tapes kids unfortunately have to play with new memories of joy and hope. Thanks for sending us to the children.
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