On our first outing, Crystal* asked me questions nonstop–everything from how I felt about scary movies to if, when I was a kid like her, I knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. As the questions just kept on coming, I knew there was something special about this child.

Crystal lived with a foster mother, as she had for the last eight years of her life. She visited her biological family every weekend and desperately wanted to stay with them. I first met her parents during a provider support meeting in the midst of Crystal’s trial to stay in their home. The issues this family faced were immediately evident; there were enough caseworkers, social workers, therapists, and supervisors to start a professional football team–and all were there for just this one family.

Although they managed to keep a roof over their heads, Crystal’s parents were older, with considerable health problems. Neither parent was literate, so they couldn’t assist Crystal with her homework or appreciate and encourage her voracious appetite for books.
Had Crystal never been chosen for Friends of the Children, her life might have followed a similar path to that of her siblings. She might have been pregnant at 13 with her parental rights terminated for her next three children–like her 19-year-old sister. Or she might have followed in the footsteps of her 17-year-old sister, who dropped out of school and is in an abusive relationship with a man twice her age.

Instead, she now has people in her life that can support and nurture her passions and ambitions. In my time with her, I have helped Crystal see that there are other options, a whole world her sisters never imagined. Crystal now dreams about what she wants to be when she grows up. Going away to college has become part of her everyday vocabulary and a real possibility for her.

* Names have been changed to protect our children.  The stories do not correlate with the child pictured.