Patti Burris

This is a label that plagues approximately 500,000 kids in the United States. These are America’s foster kids. Why are they called “garbage bag kids”? because they are shuttled placement to placement carrying black trash bags with what few belongings they have. They have been labeled America’s throw away children, children who have been lost in a system of chaos and uncertainty. Once in, it’s almost impossible to get out. Over 250,000 foster kids never return home.

Foster kids are used to feeling like an outsider… used to feeling like nameless, faceless blobs among the masses. While other children are opening presents on Christmas, the foster child will be lucky to get anything and may even have the heart-wrenching job of watching a families biological children open their presents. Unfortunately, this is no exaggeration. Abuse in foster homes is just as prevalent as abuse in any other home. What makes it worse is that these kids, who may have some behavioral/emotional problems stemming from parental abuse, will be thrown out of a foster home at the first sign of trouble. Thrown out, adding even more heartache, anxiety, and pain to an innocent child’s life. This is in the system, what happens to these kids when they turn 18?

29,000 kids age out of foster care every year. Having been sheltered in the system and having received very little training in life skills, the aged out foster child is at higher risk for homelessness or incarceration. While other 18 year olds have parents to fall back on, the aged out foster care youth has no one. No one cares. The majority have not finished high school and have no way to attend college. A sense of hopelessness hangs over them like a dense fog.

So why am I telling you all this? Because I want you to care! I want the faith-based community to finally care what happens to these beautiful children! More than 250,000 children enter the foster care system each year and there are 123,000 children from foster care waiting to be adopted. There are very few christian foster homes. The Bible tells us to take care of the widow and orphan, so why are we not doing what God wants us to do? These kids deserve to live in loving homes with people who will treat them with kindness, dignity and fairness. These kids deserve to be safe, they deserve to have parents who will protect them. I am urging the christian community to open your hearts and your homes to these kids. They deserve so much more than what they’ve been given.

I was a foster child for 3 years and was moved 10 times in those years. I have felt the pain and heartache and loneliness of being an outsider in a temporary home. I was aged out at 18, completely unprepared to make it on my own. I have a heart for these kids and will dedicate the rest of my life to making sure that every one of these kids finds a loving home to call their own.

Statistical information was taken from http://www.heartgalleryofamerica.org