Blogger: my heart goes out to this couple and the many others who find themselves in such a terrible situation.
I have a fair number of friends who have done well with 'tough adoptions' - credit to them!
Post-fostering, a couple in my family adopted a young girl with serious problems. It is the situation I know best of all. It was really hard and could so easily have failed but the girl came through and as a young woman and mother is making a pretty good fist of life. Phew!
A dozen years ago whilst their first adoption was running its course, my cousins opted for being foster parents again - with the possibility of an adoption some way down the line.
It never progressed to adoption.
I only ever met this girl once. She was about thirteen and made my flesh creep in a way that I have never encountered as either teacher or Chairman of Magistrates.
In the late 70s, I had once predicted that a 12 year old boy pupil with the coldest and most sinister attitudes I had ever met, up to that point, would one day murder someone.
I could not have been more wrong, by the way - somebody else stabbed him to death in his early 20s.
The girl I refer to was like this lad - but possibly (?) four times worse. Tragically, the fostering came to a rapid end with these loving people who were very experienced. (This was possibly because they feared for their adopted daughter!)
What on earth do we do with kids like this?
Abandoning all support to those who have so bravely adopted these hideously damaged children must end!
.jpeg)