Our daughter Samantha joined our family when she was 9. She has been with us for 3 years. Sam has 4 biological brothers. Sam’s biological family has been involved with Social Services from the time she was very young. She has one older brother, younger twin brothers and another younger brother that still lives with Mom. At about five, Sam and her brothers went into foster care. The siblings were placed in different foster homes.

Sam went to four different homes before she joined our family. Sam says that it was very hard being separated from her mom and brothers and living with people that she didn’t know. In some of the homes, she felt unwanted or not as good as the foster family’s biological children. Some of the homes tried to choose what children they wanted and “get rid of the problem children”. This left Sam feeling that she was a bad kid and that nobody wanted her. At Sam’s last foster home, they chose to put her on medication so they wouldn’t have to deal with her behavioral issues. Again, this just made her feel even more different that everyone else.

When Sam joined our family, it took a long time for her to truly believe that we see her as a good and valuable person and that we weren’t going to get rid of her if things got rough. We’ve dealt with the behaviors and she is no longer on medication that is unnecessary. Over the past three years we’ve had many ups and downs, but it is so wonderful to see her gain confidence in herself and see herself as a person worthy of love. This year she is on the honor roll and enjoying all the social things that go along with being in 6th grade. Now we have the teen years to look forward to (ha ha!), but we remain firm in our belief that this is where Sam belongs, and this is where she will stay!