Life Intended (9781476754178) by Harmel Kristin

Author:Harmel, Kristin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Eighteen

As we walk up Thirty-Fifth Street and turn left on Thirty-First Avenue, Andrew fills me in on Allie’s history. She’s in seventh grade and has been in the system on and off for the last two years. Her dad’s not in the picture, and her mom has been arrested a handful of times on minor drug charges. The mother got out of a drug rehab program recently and is visiting Allie twice a week in compliance with ACS reunification guidelines.

“So Allie will go back to her mom soon?” I ask.

“That’s the general plan if everything goes right, although it may take a while.” Andrew sighs and shoves his hands in his pockets. “I think that a lot of the time, it is better for the kid to go back to the parents, you know? If the parent is decent, the sense of stability is usually helpful for the child. But I don’t know Allie’s mom yet, and I don’t have a good sense of the situation. I worry about Allie.”

“You worry about all of them,” I say softly.

He cocks his head to the side and looks at me. “It’s probably not too good for me, because there’s only so much I can fix. But yeah. I worry. A lot. And Allie’s one of the ones I worry about the most right now.”

“You say she’s been difficult lately? Behavioral problems?”

Andrew nods.

“Do you think it’s because she’s worried about going back to her mom?”

“Maybe,” Andrew says. “Although that’s hard to unravel. Is she worried because there’s some sort of problem in the home we need to be aware of? Or is she worried her mom will lose custody of her again? Does she want to go back, or doesn’t she? It’s hard to get these kids to open up sometimes, but Allie’s grades have been slipping; she’s gotten into three fights in the last two months; and she refuses to talk with any of us about any of it. I’m hoping she’ll respond differently to you.”

“Why?”

Andrew smiles. “Because you’re the one who speaks her language.”

We arrive a few minutes later at a modest-looking apartment building on Forty-Second Street. Allie’s foster family lives in a third-floor walk-up, and as we scale the stairs, Andrew pats me on the back and says, “Good luck.” The words hang as ominously as a storm cloud as Andrew raises a fist and knocks on the door to unit 304.

A man with red hair, a thick mustache, and a goatee answers the door and smiles when he sees Andrew. “Man, you’re right on time,” he says. “Come on in.”

Andrew introduces him as Rodney Greghor, Allie’s temporary foster father. We shake hands, and Rodney explains that he and his wife, Salma, take many of the St. Anne’s kids who are likely to be reunited with their biological parents.

“Our goal is usually to place kids in foster situations that have the possibility of becoming permanent,” Andrew says. “But Rodney and Salma only do temporary situations, which has become a godsend for us.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.