How would you feel if when you were moving you had to pack your worldly belongings in a black trash bag? This is a reality for too many kids in foster care. They do not get to keep the toys they played with in the foster home. They don’t get to bring their favorite books. If there were other children in their home they may lose the only friend that have when they change homes. Then the few clothes they do get to bring are way too often loaded in trash bags to bring to their new home.
How would that make you feel? Would that make you feel good and confident? How is it possible that the kids in foster care are asked to take their worldly belongings in a trash bag like a homeless person? Should these kids that have already lost so much already not even be given a suitcase or duffle bag to carry their belongings in? In America how much money is spent on exploring outer space and we cannot afford to give these kids a $5.00 – $10.00 duffle bag?
What is it that we are telling these kids? Do you think we are instilling a sense of confidence? Do you think we are telling them that they matter? I know you are probably thinking it is just a duffle bag, but if you owned nothing but a few pieces of clothes then a bag that is your own to put your things in would mean a lot. Let me put it in a different perspective for you, if you were going on a plane would you want to check a trash bag?
Foster Parents do not get paid a lot to bring the children into their homes but would you not think that they can take a few dollars out of their checks to buy a duffle bag for the kids that they are taking in?