A Long Day

Welcome back to Taylor Talks!

It’s a little after 10pm, and this is the first chance I’ve had to sit down and write all day. It’s been pretty busy around here…

This summer, I’ve been fortunate enough to work right in my own home. As an aspiring teacher, my parents hired me to tutor my little sisters this summer and better prepare them for kindergarten. My sisters were born at 26 weeks gestation, their biological mother only had prenatal care for 10 days before they were born, and my sisters were in the hospital for three months after their births. They both needed heart surgery in those three months, and they were both born addicted to drugs. Because of their addictions and being so premature, they are still a bit behind in a lot of developmental areas. For instance, they’re both very small for their age, and continue to receive some of the many services that they started with as babies (for example, they have either received in the past or continue to receive physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech, special education services). Since we know that all children regress in their learning a bit during the summer months, we didn’t want my sisters to become further behind than they already are. So I tutor my sisters for two hours each day, and work on kindergarten readiness with them. Since I do work for my parents, I’m lucky enough to get a day off whenever I want. We keep track of when I cancel “school” and I make up the days on weekends. It’s a pretty great job to have!

So why am I writing about my summer job? Well to be honest, I’ll probably be writing about a lot of my day to day life in this blog… Hopefully most of what I write about will tie into foster care directly, but since foster care is the entire reason for my whole family, when I write about the craziness that comes from a family of eight (currently nine), it’s really does all happen because of being a foster family. But today’s little story was about more than just my summer life; I wanted to talk about my little sisters and the struggles they face everyday.

Luckily, my sisters are doing beautifully. They have come so far from the tiny peanuts that they were in the NICU. They’re progressing excellently, but they’re just not up to the same developmental levels as most other four-year-olds. I think it’s important to realize how extreme the problems can be that foster children face. Receiving basically no prenatal care and being born addicted to hard drugs still affects my sisters’ daily lives four and a half years later. A lot of foster children face problems just like these, and each child that we welcome into our lives has a different problem to deal with. Some problems are much worse than others, but all of the children deal with some kind of issue that no child should ever need to face. Remember that any foster children that you meet need a whole lot of love and care to let them know that they will overcome their problems and they mean something to the world.

I’d greatly appreciate it if you would share this blog with friends and family through your favorite social media sites. If you’re sharing on Twitter, don’t forget to tag me (@TayTayK02) and use the hashtag #TaylorTalks.

Thanks!
Taylor

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