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THIS WEEK WITH MARGARET The Ultimate Kindness by MARGARET DICKSON I have not been able to bring myself to watch the video of There are about 9,000 children in foster care in North the 15-year-old orphan in Florida who pleaded to be adopted Carolina. Only about 1,200 children were adopted from by "anyone" in a St. Petersburg church in October. I have read foster care last fiscal year, a sad number that has been the articles and seen photographs of Davion Only wearing a declining since 2009. borrowed tie and asking for a family to call his own. North Carolina and the federal government spend millions of I am just not sure I can watch and listen to him actually tax dollars every year both to support children in foster care and doing it. to promote and support adoption. Davion has never had a family. He was born in prison to a Adoption experts say that the cold, hard reality for children in drug-addicted mother and has grown up in an ongoing flow foster care or otherwise waiting to be adopted is that after age 8 of foster and group homes. In his latest one, his activities are and a half or 9, the chances of finding an adoptive home decrease videotaped and he is required to ask for the key when he has to significantly. go to the bathroom. He finally found enough courage to look There is also a spot of good news. for his mother earlier this year, only to find out on a library A bipartisan group of legislators, mostly women, in the North computer that she had died only a few weeks before. Carolina General Assembly has decided to tackle this issue — Freshman Senator Tamara Barringer of Cary is Said Davion to the congregants of St. Mark Missionary bless their hearts! one of several legislators looking to improve the Baptist Church, "I'll take anyone. Old or young, dad or During a session marked by partisan sniping and divisive foster care system in North Carolina. mom, black, white, purple. I don't care. And I would be really legislation, this group pushed through the establishment of two appreciative. The best I could be." study panels to look at foster care and adoption issues and got Have you ever read anything more heartbreaking than that? passed a foster care children's bill of rights. It has no teeth, mind you, and carries no Davion's story could have a happy ending, though. The church has been force of law, but the fact that these issues were discussed in legislative committees and overwhelmed by the reaction to his plea with more than 10,000 responses, most of on the floors of the House and Senate have raised awareness of those issues and given them volunteering to adopt him. The church is asking for patience as it sorts through hope to people involved in the system. the responses from all over the world, and my guess is that Davion will find a family of One of the lawmakers, freshman Senator Tamara Barringer of Cary, was a foster his own. mother for 11 years and says, "I saw things I wish I could unsee. Having seen them, I The bigger issue are the thousands and thousands of other Davions in communities can't ignore them. My response is to do what I can to make the foster care system better throughout our country, including our own. A friend has been a foster mother in this state." for nearly two decades, and some of the children who have circulated through her That makes me want to strap on my saddle shoes and grab my pom poms and cheer! home have broken her heart — as well as mine. Most have been not just neglected The foster care system is composed mostly of people who are trying to do good but actually abused, some in the most intimate ways. One, a boy of eight who was things with limited resources and children who are penniless and powerless. Unless removed from his mother's custody and whose father would have nothing to do with people of good will and significant clout step up to the plate as the women legislators him, was adopted by a family who wanted a second son, and that seems to be going are doing, we will continue to operate an expensive and largely invisible system which well. My friend herself adopted an 11-year-old girl who had come to her at age four. tries but which fails far, far too many Davions. Some of the others were returned to their parents or went to live with other family Senator Gladys Robinson of Greensboro, another of the concerned members, with varying degrees of success. legislators, put it this way. "We should make sure we're doing for Most, however, continued in the foster care system, moving to other foster homes those children what we would do for our MARGARET DICKSON, Conbecause my friend's home cannot accommodate older children. own children." tributing Writer, COMMENTS? Here are a few facts to ponder. Amen to that. Editor@upandcomingweekly.com. 484-0261 Book Your Banquet & Holiday Parties Early! Family & Business Groups Welcome! Banquet rooms available up to 100 guests Us y' g Weekly p & Coming W eekly's Up & Comin P e e Gu Pocket Guidockmunt Directo ide Com ity ry ectory Community Dir 2013 2013 om mingweekly.c www.upandco www.upandc 2013 omingweek 2013 ly.com On-Line All Year! VOL. 13 VOL. 13 www.upandcomingweekly.com 8 NOV. 27 - DEC. 3, 2013 1304 Morganton Rd. Mon-Sat: 6am-10pm Sun: 7am-2:30 pm Serving Fayetteville Over 50 Years! Pocket Guide 2014 Reserve Your Space! 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