Imagine for a second that you're a little kid. Your life is filled with chaos. Perhaps your parents are drug users.

At best, you aren't really sure where your next meal will come from--sometimes your parents are gone for days at a time. So you hide things that will keep in your closet, under your bed, in places that are safe.

At worst, you hide from your caretakers because you get hit if you get in the way. Perhaps there is an adult in the house who does things worse than hitting. Dark corners where there is no yelling are good places to be.

But these are your parents and you love them... Still you are almost always scared. ADULTS ARE SUPPOSED TO PROTECT YOU!

One day, the police come and take you away from your parents and you are taken to an office where you are told that you can't be with Mommy and Daddy. At least not for now.

That same day, you are put into a house with nice enough people who feed you and take care of you. But they aren't your parents. A nice lady called a caseworker comes and visits you and you also meet with another person who asks you lots of questions about your life. You're told that this person is your Lawyer.

A couple of weeks later you are moved from the house you were in and are now in a brand new place with new people. These people take care of you well enough, but you don't know them. Why should you get to know them?

You still don't have any idea of where your parents are, but you are told that you can't be with them because it wouldn't be safe.

Once a week you are brought to an office where your Mommy and Daddy are supposed to come visit with you. Sometimes they show up and sometimes they don't. Sometimes they are high or drunk. This goes on for weeks and months. You're told you can't be with them until they get better.

Eventually you are told that you might have new parents. You meet another nice enough couple who take you home, but you don't know them. Why should you get to know them?

All the while you meet with the caseworker and the lawyer about once a month.

Finally you go to a court house where you are told that these new people are your Mommy and Daddy forever. How can you trust this? Everybody else has gone away. And these people AREN'T your Mommy and Daddy.

The sense of loss has got to be almost unbearable. You've lost your family. Folks who took you in have given you up as well.

All your rules have changed multiple times. What do rules matter anyway because even when you follow them you get taken away, given away, dumped, dropped. How can you trust anybody? Why would you trust anybody?

Being a kid in foster care is hard. Even after adoption, if adoption occurs, it is hard. NONE of it is your fault. NONE of it is fair.

This is why we foster and this is why we adopt--to take care of those who need it most. We do it because life isn't fair and kids deserve better.