After a call was made to Social services, the worker did a home visit and found "Josh" (one year old) and "Lucy" (two years old) closed in a room while their mother slept in the living room.
They had obviously been confined for quite some time as the room, including the toys and cribs, was covered in feces. The apartment contained drug paraphernalia that was within reach of the children and it was discovered that the mother was on probation for drug related charges. The children have different fathers, neither of which is in the picture due to being incarcerated. Little did "Jamie" (a foster mom) know her story was just beginning.
On a Wednesday afternoon, "Jamie" called regarding having received two young foster children into her home. She had utilized Wee Care for childcare before and knew we would be the place
to provide these particular children the safety and stability that they certainly were going to need. She explained that Josh and Lucy were coming to her from a terrible situation and would need Wee Care staff to make some allowances to ensure they were getting the appropriate care. They were going to need to be put into a room together even though they should have been separated due to age. This wa
We are thankful to have been part of changing the circumstances for Josh and Lucy. Thay are constant reminders of the importance of the work that we do for abused and neglected children.
s necessary due to their dependence on each other for survival. After being placed in foster care they continued to try to eat feces from their diapers as they had done at home. Lucy, who should have been very chatty by now, was found to be nonverbal. Both children cried incessantly in the beginning, but as staff continued to provide structure and love and care, Lucy was able to be moved to the two-year old room. The separation was difficult for a couple of days, but soon Josh and Lucy settled into learning to become children. With their physical and emotional needs being met, we soon began to see Lucy starting to reach some critical two-year old milestones. Even though she showed tremendous progress, she still needed more help than we could give, so she was referred to First Steps to further enforce her progress. We will continue to watch Josh and Lucy to make sure they are meeting their expected milestones, continue to treat them with love, kindness and respect, make sure they are valued and given all the tools they will need to grow up to be productive, decent human beings that will break the terrible cycle of abuse and neglect.
We are thankful to have been a part of changing the circumstances for Josh and Lucy. They are constant reminders of the importance of the work that we do for abused and neglected children.