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“IT'S NO USE SAYING, WE ARE DOING OUR BEST. YOU HAVE GOT TO SUCCEED IN DOING WHAT IS NECESSARY”
—Winston Churchill |
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| As my wife and I look back on our last year of Treatment Foster Care we pondered the significant changes in how Treatment Foster Care was administered. We are all keenly aware of the changes made during the 2004-2005 period. A new insurance company, changes in staff at La Familia, new reporting procedures and guidelines. And those many changes left treatment parents wondering about the status of TFC and where we might all be in the future. One thing that did not change was the level of commitment necessary to do this work. The necessity of a healthy mind and the deep determination to help a child understand that adults do care about their safety, their well being and their futures. |
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| These things never change, if anything, they become more complex as a treatment parent becomes more aware of how this thing called treatment care works. That being said, throughout all of the changes, the commitment to excellence shown by the treatment coordinators in addressing the needs and desires of the parents during this period as well as the professionalism of the entire La Familia staff helped smooth the turbulent seas of uncertainty. Janice and I have been blessed in the last year and with a sad but warm feeling in our hearts, have said goodbye to four of our children, they too were blessed by being adopted. Possibly the hardest part of TFC is the goodbye. |
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| Allowing the children to take flight, hoping that the love and nurturing imparted on them will grow in their new lives. The questions of could we have done better overshadowed by the joy of beginning, once again, to shape new lives. If there is a better feeling, I have yet to encounter it. Treatment Foster care is an evolving praxis, and change is part of that evolution. Finding new methods to recover and renew a broken child, I hope, will never be without change. Change allows us to grow, to rejuvenate the challenge, in real life, and not on paper. Change is what we hope and pray for in our children's lives. |
Bill Hassley
Treatment Foster Parent
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