A Patchwork Life - a discussion about the rights of foster children to have access to their previous caregivers

Do any of you remember a favorite patchwork quilt from your childhood? Perhaps your mother pieced it together from fragments of your baby blanket and favorite clothes. Maybe your grandmother made you one out of her best aprons. There's something special and lovely about a patchwork quilt. It carries memories thoughtfully gathered and preserved. The colorful remnants are skillfully bound together to be treasured and enjoyed in the future. Somehow it makes our past tangible. It allows us to revisit it, to process the joys and the pain over and over again. It's comforting to be wrapped in our personal history. How would it feel to be wrapped in your favorite quilt savoring it's warm memories and then suddenly have it snatched from you forever? Or perhaps just have someone cut out a piece or two and leave you clutching the remaining ragged edges?

Some of us have patchwork lives, but none more so than a foster child. Maybe you can remember something disruptive in your childhood. Was there a death of a parent or caregiver? What about the pain and confusion surrounding a divorce, illness, or relocation? Hopefully some caring adult saw the need to protect your young and tender heart. They preserved a treasured item from the fire. They encouraged you to talk about a lost loved one. They gave you some photos of your old home. They let you call an old friend. Perhaps someone who cared tried to beautify and strengthen the seams that held your life together. Hopefully family members and friends responded to the emotional emergency and rushed in to preserve your life quilt, to keep you warm and safe. If that didn't happen, you probably still feel the drafts through the trauma torn quilt. You might feel disconnected and unsure of your identity at times.

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