May is National Foster Care Month
Author describes childhood in foster care
Rob Henderson's new book Troubled focuses on his incredible journey from a "confused and terrified" foster child to his current life as a Ph.D in psychology from Cambridge University.
Henderson's life as one of the 400,000 children foster care began when he was three years old, clinging in terror to his addicted mother as he was about to see her for the last time. What came next was a series of foster homes, some he doesn't remember and some he can't forget. But what is burned into his memory is the uncertain nature of life in foster care.
"I was moving foster homes every six months to a year or so. Day to day, I wouldn't know whether I would be moved to a different home. A day or a week would go by and suddenly a foster sibling that I had formed a bond with would be taken to another home or placed back with their parents. Kids would come and go all the time. From a small child's point of view, it was total chaos," Henderson told persuasion.com.
But, Henderson writes, the foster care system often needs to move children frequently to some of the different 200,000 foster care families in the U.S. Sometimes it's because of a change in foster family circumstances, sometimes because a birth family member becomes available. Need for foster care families has been rising since 2012.
Henderson was adopted at age 6 by a couple who divorced just a year later, to his sorrow. In his early childhood, he suffered loss and instability. Later, he says he was reckless, impulsive, and unengaged. However, later, the military provided structure and stability j– the things he really needed to succeed.
"No institution is more aware of the latent impulsivity and stupidity in young people, especially young men, than the military," he writes.
With the imposed discipline of the military, and later the G.I. Bill that sent him to college, Henderson was able to change the trajectory of his life.
