This award-winning short film creates deeper understanding of what life is like for a foster child.
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What role could you play in helping parent the 350,000+ kids who find themselves in the United States foster care system each year? Could you step in and help as a CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate), as a Foster Parent, as someone who becomes an advocate for children who have a painful story, encouraging those around you to to care about foster children? Perhaps there are foster parents in your neighborhood that you can be a support to. The first step is to build our understanding or to take it deeper. This film will help.
This award-winning film by Nathanael Matanick gives us a glimpse into the world of what it would be like to be a foster child. An aching beauty, this will paint a picture of the confusion, fear, isolation, sadness, and hope a child would experience as they walk a very difficult road away from one home and into another.
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Most faith narratives urge us to care for those in need. Christianity urges throughout the Bible to care of the “widows and orphans.” Our definition of “orphan” and “widow” might be narrower than they should be. Even if a child is an “orphan” for a season, we should care of them as their human family, loving them as they deserve.
“I am lovable. I am worthy of care. And that glimmer of light, it makes all the difference. The glimmers of light give me hope that someday, my summer will come.”
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How well do we do that? Do we find it too messy, too difficult? Are we prone to dismiss the things in life that hard, and yet wonder, why our lives feel unfulfilling and self-focused? Perhaps you might find yourself able to make a step closer to understanding and caring for these children who find themselves living without the parents that they are both attached to and being kept from for their own safety. Your awareness, your willingness, your heart…might be opened just a bit by watching this beautiful film as it was mine.
This beautiful film ends with these words, spoken in the voice of a child: “I am lovable. I am worthy of care. And that glimmer of light, it makes all the difference. The glimmers of light give me hope that someday, my summer will come.”
Let’s bring light to those who need it, the youngest and most vulnerable among us. There are “orphans” among us, some of them are our country’s foster children.
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Will you share this post on your wall and grow the awareness around you of what it is like to be a foster child?
If you are interested in foster parenting, contact your local county Department of Child Services. You might also want to look for private organizations like Olive Crest, to begin the conversation.
Video credit: ReMoved from HESCHLE on Vimeo.
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I would re-post it for you if it is captioned.
Very moving.