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January 18, 2009
A Real-life Cinderella....
While I was in the local CASA office the other day to sign off on my latest report I saw a couple copies of "Three Little Words" by Ashley Rhodes-Courter in the cubicle of our program manager. She'd already left for lunch, but with permission from her assistant I swiped a copy to take home and read.
For 4 1/2 days it waited patiently on my coffee table for me to pick it up and read it. Last night around 9 pm, too early to go to bed but too lazy to start any of my waiting projects, I opened it up and began to read. For three and a half hours my eyes stayed glued to the pages of the book, riveted by Ms. Ashley's recounting of her childhood spent in custody of the state of Florida, moving from one foster placement to another before being adopted by the Courter family. I never would have imagined that the "three little words" which changed her life were not "I love you".
This book shattered all my illusions about how older children feel during the adoption process, and why so many of those adoptions fail. But it also ends with hope, hope that something can be done for children currently living in foster care due to abuse or neglect, and that I am already doing it.
Posted by Anna at January 18, 2009 2:15 PM