July 27, 2010
Donald and Devin were reunited with their biological father after 15 years of no contact through their Facebook pages. After several weeks of phone calls with the twins, Donald, Sr. and his wife came for a visit to Huntington Beach. The guys spent a week at a local hotel with their father. At the end of their visit their father ask Donald and Devin to join him and his new family in Tennessee. After some thought, Donald and Devin decided to live with their father. Reuniting with their parents was something that the guys had always wanted. While we are sad to see the guys leave our family, we are happy that the reunification went well and the guys now have their greatest wish come true. We wish them luck in their new life.
July 2010
Donald joined our family from the state of Washington.
After aging out of the foster care system there the
prospect of finding a permanent and forever family was
grim. During Donny's long tenure in foster care no one
bothered to hook him up with services for folks with
developmental disabilities so at the age of 18 his
living option were few. I met Donny late last year and
decided to bring him to California give him the family
that he never had. Despite no financial support from the
state of Washington or the State of California we are
getting Donny hooked up with the services and supports
that he requires. It is simply a crime that Donny's
living options were on the streets or at a homeless
shelter because the folks who managed his case never
made sure that Donny would get the services he needed as
an adult.
Donny is happy to be in sunny Southern California. He is
enjoying his summer and looks forward to attending high
school in the fall. Since Donny is not on the diploma
track, he will receive vocational services and
independent living support through the high school
district until the age of 21. Although Donny would like
to have paid employment and to learn to drive, he has
many interfering behavioral issues that we are working
on with him. Donny witnessed significant domestic
violence in his birth home and suffered physical abuse
and neglect until the age of three. Then Donny
experienced many, many residential placements between
the age of 3 and 18 , many of which were also abusive
and emotionally neglectful. One can only imagine how
ripe he is for social-emotional problems and other
behavioral challenges. We are working with Donny on
developing appropriate coping skills and on how to be a
member of a real family. Donny has a long way to go but
he is motivated. He says "All I ever wanted was a real
family to belong to and for someone to care about me."
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