Only the tip ...

I thought I had seen 

the brokenness 

of 'the system' before.

I was repeatedly witness -  

on the child protection side -

to children sent home
time after time
to abusive parents;

parents who promised
to clean up their acts -

with epic fails - 

and the ultimate re-inury
or death
of the children

they supposedly loved.

Children 'the system' put in harms way

every day.

Now -

on the foster care side - 

I realize 

anew

I had seen
only
the tip

of a very large
dysfunctional
iceberg.

Can someone explain to me
how removing 2 toddlers from their mothers custody
due to "residential instability"
then placing
and removing
them from 4 placements
in less than 30 days
is any better?

These aren't acting out teenagers
determined to sabotage any placement;
these are babies -

9 mos and 28 months old;
placed in an emergency residential facility
in the middle of the night;
(which may actually have been safer and better
than the car they were living in);
put in a foster home 4 days later;
removed when the foster mom
realized she had a vacation weekend planned;
placed in a respite home for 5 days,
then returned to the vacation moms home
when she came back
from her long restorative weekend away,
and removed 3 days later
to be placed with the one relative
on both sides of the family 
who passed the criminal background checks - 
only to be removed from her home
when the kids were again found
in their mothers car
with her passed out
in the front seat
 from a heroin OD.

Seems Granny thought as long as she could 'eyeball the car from the window'
that was a supervised visit!

Only trouble is
you apparently have to look out the damn window
more frequently than every 15 hours!

The cycle is now repeating itself
with an emergency residential placement,
to be followed next week
with a foster home,
to be followed after that with ...

What the hell are we doing?
What are we teaching these kids about
 relationship,
trust,
permanency,
the world?

What road are we taking these kids down?

Don't have any answers, my friends;
but I DO have
lots of new questions.

My new job is challenging
in surprising
and unanticipated
ways.

I know that
I won't be the same for the knowing;

I won't be able to un-see
all I'm seeing now.

And,
as always,
I'n not sure if that's
the good news
or
the bad news.