Messes are OK
Foster care is a mess. There’s nothing clean or pretty about it. My name is Shannon Wilson, and I am an Adoption Permanency Specialist from Saint Francis Ministries. My role is to advocate and make sure children are getting their needs met in the foster care system while also finding a permanent home for them. Some children come to us after experiencing a lot of trauma, and that means they are wrestling with emotions and impulses the only way they know how. When we meet children and families in the foster care system, they are going through the most difficult times of their lives. It is my job to support them and help the child see the possibility of a stable, loving home, and future. It is also my job to help children learn a way forward, and to help families understand how to support the children as they begin to think about a life that offers stability and permanency. Permanency is key for all children and adoption creates a new family with a life-long permanency plan.
Being an adoption worker is an extremely significant role in the sense of making sure a child’s forever family is the best fit. Sometimes this isn’t easy as one would hope. There is a lot of time, dedication, and thought put into matching families with children in foster care to make the most successful decisions. I wouldn’t have it any other way!
The mission of Saint Francis Ministries is to provide healing and hope. My job is to do exactly that, often for children who don’t understand what it even means to have hope or what a stable, safe, loving family looks like. It is the children who make me continually strive to do better and be better as a worker. Anyone who is involved in the child welfare system would probably say that it is life-altering. You learn to look at life differently and to think differently – and you’re never the same again.
Adoption in foster care is worth it and literally changes the world for children. We just need to be okay with mess.
Shannon Wilson
