A Day in the Life of a Kid Entering Foster Care

7:03 AM

School starts in an hour. If I get a ride, I might even be on time. The sun is already up. I don't like sleeping past the sun, but it was loud in the house last night. I don't mind the noise. I'm used to it. But when my uncle and his friends are here, I can't sleep. Last time they were here, a week ago, there was a big fight and somebody fell into our bedroom door. It cracked and I thought it might break. I heard mom screaming at them to stop. I heard glass breaking. A bottle, maybe? Or a window? Or a bottle through a window? Hard to tell. I didn't want my comics to get bent or torn, so I jumped out of bed to collect them. My brother had a couple in his bed, and I pulled one out from under his shoulder. The fight didn't wake him, but he fell out of bed grabbing for it. Then we were fighting. I tried to get him to be quiet, but he was mad. When my uncle yelled from the living room, we both stopped and pretended to be asleep. But I had a split lip already. When I got up the next morning they were gone and there was glass in the living room carpet. It was a window. I found a clean shirt and a pop-tart, and started walking to school. It takes more than an hour unless one of my friends sees me and gets their parents to stop. I got a bike for Christmas and was on-time everyday for a month, but then it got stolen.

7:40 AM

David's mom saw me and stopped. She's nice and invited me for dinner after school. I don't really like David. He only doesn't read comics, plays soccer, and takes forever on math. I'm always bored at his house, but they make good pizza and I know I'll be hungry, so I say yes.

11:42 AM

Morning classes were all boring. I fell asleep and got in trouble. Mr. Baez had one of the front row girls (that's where all the kids with good grades sit) make a Tiktok of me sleeping in class and then sent me to the office. I haven't seen it yet (my phone got stolen too.) The nurse gave me a snack and let me take a nap in her office. But I couldn't sleep then, so I just sat on the cot and read Dragon Age until the bell. When I opened the door to go back to class there was a lady I'd never seen who asked me a bunch of question like where I live and what I eat and how I got a busted lip last week.

1:57 PM

We launched a model rocket in science class. That was cool. But it got stuck in a tree.

4:45 PM

The lady with the questions is back. Her name is Sheri. I think she told me this morning but I didn't remember. Now she's saying that I can't go home or to David's house and have to come with her. I asked about my brother, and she said we were going to pick him up. His school is in the other direction, and sometimes he skips. We drove there first. Her car smells like tacos. She asked for him at the office. He wasn't there, so she tried the library. There's no way brother would be at the library, but she wanted to try. Then we tried in town. He wasn't at the gas station or the park. She took me back to her office to wait while she kept looking for him. I offered to help. I know all his spots. But she said no it wasn't my job, so now I'm bored and this couch is uncomfortable.

6:15 PM

Sheri gave up looking for brother, and now I'm worried about him. He'll go home eventually, but nobody will be there. Sheri said that mom and my uncle were going to jail. She wouldn't say why, but probably drugs. Sheri won't even let me go home to get my stuff. Maybe later she says.

8:04 PM

Sheri took me to this place. I don't know what to call it. It's a house, a nice one with a staircase. And there are people here, but they're not loud like my uncle and his friends, more like teachers. They asked if I was hungry, and I said yes. They asked me what I wanted, I said pizza. So they made one just for me. I ate almost the whole thing. It was really good. They asked what I wanted to do, and I said find my brother. They said we can't, how about Legos. So, we're playing with little kid toys. The house is clean at least, and nobody is shouting. And they gave me new clothes. I asked if they had any comics. They don't, but said we could go look for some tomorrow. I guess I'm sleeping here.

10:22 PM

Sheri came back. She found brother. He's really upset and won't talk to me. It started raining, so he's wet and shivering. The people got new clothes for him too, and gave him a bath. He took forever and was all wrinkly when he got done. And then the people made a whole other pizza for him too. He only ate one piece, so I had two more. Now we're in bunkbeds and I can hear the people cleaning up downstairs. I don't know what happened to brother, but I'm glad he's here. I'm glad we're here together.

*This is a fictional story based off of realistic and common scenarios for foster kids.

At The Landing, we give kids a soft entrance into foster care, thoughtfully meeting the unique needs of each child. Kids come to us in a wide variety of circumstances, many of them—like the boys in this story—need simple things: healthy food, a safe place to sleep, new clothes, and the undivided attention of safe and healthy adults. And when they get those things, the wounds from of abuse or chronic neglect begin to heal. This is important work, and it's only possible because people just like you give and/or volunteer to make it so. Join the effort at skookumkids.org/volunteer