Editor's Notes

I write about whatever I feel like in this section. Therapy, what’s coming up next, the trials and tribulations, yadda, yadda, yadda. Much like the rest of the magazine, this section is run on whimsy. I don’t know what anything is going to look like or what I’m going to cover when I sit down here at the computer to start an issue. I have no editorial calendar, no agenda. Cream rises to the top. The best articles make the issue, doesn’t matter the subject matter. If it’s good and/or helpful, it gets in. I truly have no clue what anything will look like when I start each month.

I should be fired up. I'm a movie buff who's big into superhero movies. Not dress up and go to Comic Con into it, but easily excited at the idea of people flying through the air and smashing things.

I should be fired up. Decades of comic books and movies are about to collide on the big screen in the form of Batman vs. Superman. I own every movie in both franchises.

I should be fired up. Instead, I'm kind of annoyed.

55 of these things. Can you believe that? 55. Month after month.

How to keep the drive alive? This is the question that rattles through my empty head as the years roll on with Foster Focus. Are the endless hours in front of the computer worth all the effort and lack of life? When you get worn out, it can be tough to do pretty much anything, let alone the thing you are supposed to be doing. The work ethic, whether it is being practiced or not, is still there, maybe under the surface in times of angst. I’m full of angst. I’ve always been this way.

One of the perks of this job is getting to meet foster kids. It doesn’t happen that often. Generally, I will attend a youth oriented conference or like recently, I attend a toy giveway for foster youth.

“All the leaves are brown and the sky is grey…” that’s where the song ends for me because I never leave my office but winter is in full swing and I can feel the urge to head west gnawing at me.

I’ve written about my west coast trips a number of times so I won’t bother you again. Instead, I’d like to talk about something I’ve done my entire life and continue to do today. It’s something that a lot of foster youth are guilty of, for good or for bad. It’s longing.

Another calendar year in the books. Now is the time when we bask in the glow of another year in business. Who am I kiddin? There’s no time to bask. There’s only time to kiss my kids and get back to work!

It’s been a whirlwind year. If a few years back was the year of awards, then this year was the year of travel.

The plan was to simply plop a piece I’d already written for the Huffington Post here in the Editor’s Notes so I could move on to the December issue of the magazine but something has been bothering the hell out of me.

Me, with my big heart, small brain and big mouth!

It started out as a pretty simple goal; answer the one question that nearly every foster kid or former foster kid is asked: What does foster care feel like?”

I reached out to the Alumni community (that’s one of the thousands of names they give those of us who have gone through the foster care system), they responded by flooding me with responses. Over 30 of my fellow foster care alumni stepped up to share what foster care felt like to them.

Hotel life isn’t nearly as bad as you would think it is.

It seems shabby, car to room, room to car, what kind of life is that? My kind of life!

Let’s chat it up about my brain. My brain, your brain, kids’ brain, brains in general.

Recently two of my three kids (all mine, married the mom then had the kids, myth buster!) were tested for the aptitude at school. Kind of an IQ test to see where they are at this point in the game. One of the many benefits of a small town school system. They sat down with a few counselors and took a couple of tests. The counselors sat in class and watched them as they interacted with the teachers and other students.