A Young Man's Most Treasured Things
from www.casaforchildren.org
Volunteer Cheryl Reed helped John go from being a traumatized, overly medicated boy to a loved young man.
Below, Cheryl Reed, volunteer with CASA of the Coastal Bend (TX), shares the story of John, a child who suffered years of neglect by a drug-addicted mother and physical abuse by her boyfriends before finding a safe, permanent home.
When I first met John he was 12 years old and had just entered foster care. He and his four siblings had been homeless. He and his twin took turns taking care of the two youngest so that each could go to school every other day.
While in state care, John was moved 15 times in two years. A child used to no rules was forced into strange houses, three hospitals, emergency care facilities and residential treatment centers in five different cities.
John watched as his siblings found permanent homes: An aunt took custody of his older brother and twin sister, but not him. His little sister and brother were adopted. But not John. A foster home where he and his younger siblings were placed kept his siblings but told CPS to pick John up. Relatives promised to visit but didn’t. A foster dad kept him two days and returned him….
John carried my crumpled CASA business card in his back pocket. When I visited him, he would retrieve it and proudly tell me, “I still have your card.†I was the only continuity in his life as I consistently and adamantly advocated for him.
While I struggled to find permanency for John, he deteriorated, growing angry, combative and aggressive. He broke his own arm hitting a wall. He was put on five medications. He saw bugs in his food and heard voices. He refused to eat.
After exhausting possibility after possibility for permanency, John finally got the home he deserved. Rafaela, his great aunt, wanted to be his mother. Single, working full time, she already had three children. But John needed her and that was enough. John was taken off all medications save one, and his once slim frame bloomed with a healthy 30 pound gain. Rafaela says that to this day she has never been called to the school concerning any aggressive behavior.
It has been almost four years since the close of this case and just last week I saw John and he told me a secret. He has a special box where he keeps his most treasured things. In it is a crumpled CASA business card. The same one that I gave him six years ago….
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