Search Results for: blog a childs life in the ghetto

My First Venture Into the Ghetto

Posted on by

About 35 years ago, I started my first real job. It was not long before I had to schedule a business trip to New York City. That sounded like a big deal to a young man from a town with 50,000 people. I had noticed in the newspaper that my favorite baseball team was playing a double hitter on Sunday against the Mets. I went to New York a day early and made a hotel reservation near Shea Stadium. I took a taxi from the hotel and watched both games. Being in New York for the first time was very … Continue reading →

Babies Produced by the Drug Culture

Posted on by

At the close of a recent blog about child abuse, I was asked an interesting question. Why do women, who do not want to take care of their children, keep having them? I am by no means an expert on a question like this, but I can make some comments based upon what I have seen and heard. The birth mother of our five adopted children had seven children in ten years. I have not seen her in some time so she may have had more. All of the children that I know of have been taken away from her … Continue reading →

He Still Wonders

Posted on by

Sometimes I wonder what my adopted children are thinking. Every now and then, they will tell me something that is surprising. Every time that I start to think that a child is finally secure, I get a surprise. At least, that is how it has worked so far. Our oldest is eight years old and our only child that can really remember a day that he was not with us. I have already related how he recently had to ask if he was still going to be living with us when we tried to sneak him out of the house … Continue reading →

Just Like Dad

Posted on by

Matthew Walter, our oldest adopted child, is the only one who remembers anything about his life before he was part of our family. He is very inquisitive about my family, particularly my father. The other boys rarely, if ever, show such an interest. I look for opportunities with him to interject something about my father as we go through the day. For instance, this morning I took Matthew to have his eyes examined by an optometrist. When I could see that the doctor was making a good impression on him, I told him that my father and my grandfather (maternal) … Continue reading →

Is a Society That Disregards Children Civilized?

Posted on by

Some years ago, my wife and I went on two church trips. First, we went to New York City to work with a children’s ministry based in a distressed section of Brooklyn. As previously reported, we found the average child to be living in appalling conditions. In some areas, young children consistently had black, rotten baby teeth. The children were essentially taking care of themselves. The main problem was that their parents were either physically absent or totally absorbed with their own issues. The reason for all of this chaos was drug addiction and the crime that it causes. We … Continue reading →

Basic Nurture: Catching Up

Posted on by

When a child has not received basic nurturing as an infant, there is a deep need to receive what he missed, even if it comes several years later. I want to preface what I am about to write by saying that I am not a medical or psychological expert. I am raising children who were deprived of their basic necessities as infants. My wife and I have done our best to solve the problem based upon information from people who are experts and various publications which address the issue. Three of our children came to us when they were four … Continue reading →

Another Baby Left With Boyfriend Tragedy

Posted on by

It is another verse of the same song that seems to be playing everywhere. The twenty year old mother of a fourteen month old little girl went to work and left the child with her twenty-one year old boy friend who lived with them. When she came back to the couple’s apartment from her job, she discovered that the child was unconscious. She summoned help in the apartment complex and someone administered CPR to the child. It was too late. The child was dead when they arrived at a local hospital. Upon examining the baby, medical personnel noticed unusual swelling … Continue reading →

The Trend to Open Adoption

Posted on by

Apparently, the current trend in adoption circles is toward open adoption. In an open adoption, the birth parent is allowed to occasionally have contact with the children. Most of the prominent adoption magazines strongly recommend it. It is also the in-vogue direction that social work academics seem to be leaning. My wife and I were recently driving home from a three day vacation and “just for fun”, Nancy called in to a very popular national radio show hosted by a well-known family issues psychologist. The radio host seemed oblivious to all of our good reasons to avoid our children’s birth … Continue reading →

Black Males Are Lagging Academically

Posted on by

A school board member at Houston’s largest school system has noticed the discouraging state statistics showing that African American males are lagging behind all other demographic groups academically. He checked the records in Houston and found that black males were scoring at or near the lowest levels in every course and at every grade level. This fact is something that almost everyone in educational circles knows, but few are actually talking about. He has a plan to try and turn the situation around in Texas. His plan is called the Texas Minority Male Youth Initiative. He hopes to stir up … Continue reading →

Toddler Brutally Murdered by His Father

Posted on by

Two years ago, twenty-five year old Daniel Hernandez was arrested for brutally shaking his one month old son and severely injuring him. Since then, he had been free on bond. The agreement on which his freedom was based stipulated that he would not be with the boy. Now the child is dead and Hernandez is in jail once again. After the 2005 incident, the child lived with Hernandez’s aunt. The mother, twenty-one year old Jessica Ann Emhoolah, was required to go to counseling and take parenting skills classes. She did everything that the court asked her to do and this … Continue reading →