Update--Melissa Flores

Here is an update one the Melissa Flores post I did on October 16, 2007. Citizens of Texas are responding and it looks like she will get a respectful grave marker. Click here for the details.

I also think Tracy was right on. It seems that a scholarship fund is being set up for a younger sibling. What I think would be great is if her younger sibling got a family! Forget foster care!

Granted foster care is a stop gap measure to get kids out of a bad situation, I fully understand that. I have talked to foster families. When a child is brought to them, many times in the middle of the night, the consensus is "were these children raised by wolves?". Why? Because they are filthy, have no clothes, yucky teeth, hungry, dirty diapers, lice, moldy milk in the diaper bag if there is a diaper bag, etc. Foster care families are fabulous for cleaning up that mess and beginning the process of learning how to sit down and eat a meal, learning to brush teeth, bathroom cleanliness (ie washing hands, wiping, etc), going to school, learning social skills and not survival skills, etc. They are angels.

There is something to be said for a home, to take on a family name, to call people you live with by their familial titles (ie Dad, Mom, Grandma, Grandpa, etc.). There is something to be said for that family, not just the dad and the mom, to fully accept and embrace a child into their family. Foster families didn't sign up for that. They signed up for the temporary care and they do it well, most of the time. I know, we all hear in the news about the lousy ones. My answer, as always, there is a lemon in every crowd that gives the rest a bad name. They also seem to make the news. I am talking about all the others who are doing a great job and get no attention for it whatsoever. Those you never hear about. Give them a jewel in their crown when they reach heaven.

My prayer is that Melissa's sibling get that permanent family. Foster families prepare adoptable kids for the permanent family life. I pray that permanent family for Melissa's remaining sibling.