The heartbreaking truth of foster children. Their reality. The reason behind acting out or shutting down or self hate. I have heard horrific stories of heartbreak, separation, abuse & neglect. These stories I have heard before, second hand or on the news. It still effects me and truly breaks my heart. But the one thing that hit me the hardest, the one I cannot stop thinking about, was the trash bag. As if there isn't anything worse than being pulled from everything you know, no matter how bad the situation, most children in foster care (at least in my area) get a trash bag when being taken from their home or from foster home to foster home. They are handed a trash bag and told to put everything they can into this one bag because that is all they can take with them. They already feel angry, abandoned, hurt, heartbroken, then they are handed a trash bag. In this trash bag they carry every ounce of who they are. Everything they know of themselves or their family. Stop and think, if you were suddenly forcefully removed from everyone and everything you know, and handed a trash bag.
No one deserves a trash bag.
This is reality for so many children. Please, please, if you have luggage or a big bag you are thinking of giving to goodwill or selling, please consider donating to your local foster care agency. I know these social workers absolutely hate giving trash bags to these children and would much rather give them a bag of their own to keep. Please watch the following videos that tell a realistic story of a child in foster care. She has a trash bag.
