Greetings, CASA supporters!
So, I have to tell you: I lost my cell phone a couple of months ago.
My husband, daughter and I had just left the air show in Dallas. It had been a good day. Tired but happy, we pulled in to a gas station outside the airport to fuel up before heading home.
It was there that I made the fatal error: While taking my 3-year-old to the ladies’ room, I set my phone down and accidentally walked out without it. A half mile down the road, I realized it was gone. We went back immediately, but it was nowhere to be found.
Cue panic attack.
I called the phone a couple of times, and initially it rang, but eventually the person who took it turned it off. Oh, the names I called this person in my head!
I called our carrier, desperate for them to tell me that, yes, they could indeed track the exact location of my phone via satellite, carrier pigeon, smoke signal, anything!
As you can imagine, they didn’t say that.
In the end, we cancelled my service and drove straight to the cell phone store, where I was delighted to find out that almost all of my photos (including my daughter’s baby pictures), videos, emails and text messages were backed up and could be restored – an unexpected happy ending.
Logically, I know that a cell phone is an object. Clearly, it can be replaced, as mine was only three hours later. Still, its loss triggered a wide range of emotions: regret at the mistake I’d made; anger at the person who took my phone; sadness at the idea that many of my daughter’s pictures might be lost forever; hope that, on some off chance, I might find the phone; frustration that getting the situation resolved involved so many steps.
I experienced all these feelings after I lost a cell phone. Unlike our CASA children, I didn’t lose my parents, siblings, home, pets, belongings, school, friends, hobbies, or extended family. Our children lose all of these things when they are removed from their homes for their own safety and placed in foster care.
Is it any wonder that we see the behaviors we do from foster children? After my cell phone debacle, I was snappy and short-tempered with my husband and fumed silently in the passenger seat of our car as he drove home. It was not my finest moment.
Our CASA kiddos lose everything and are forced to try and process emotions that make grown people act out! All we can do is provide them the guidance and support they need and show them how to make good choices.
Our CASA volunteers have real, tangible opportunities to help set these kids on the right course in life. If you are interested in helping, visit becomeacasa.org or casaoftv.org to apply.
