I read this article interviewing successful adults, former foster care kids who never got adopted, yet they made it, due to their insight about studying hard as their exit ticket breaking the cycle of doom. They were all in a room brainstorming about how they can impact the next generations of orphans. They were all asked a single question: “what one change would you have implemented in the foster system?”
There were many good answers, but one in particular stuck with me. Vacation. Take the foster kids on vacation. Make it as an incentive for good students, for altruism, for good behavior. Take them all, take a few. But going on vacation is an utopian idea for foster kids. Yet it is so transformational. I know many adults who live to go on vacation.
If only there was an easier way to do that for foster kids. Every time we took Jackie to visit us home during the adoption matching we had to sign papers stating exactly where and for how long we take her, and never overnight. Until she was entrusted to us by a judge.
I bet it would be hard to go back to reality after vacation. It’s hard for anyone. But vacations don’t need to be fancy or far. Conrad and I hike. A lot. There are so many good places to still explore and nature to immerse ourselves in.
I guess it’s time to brainstorm on the matter. Taking foster kids on vacation. Wanderlust is in our blood. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t travel.