Editor's Notes

Keeping up with the Joneses should be tattooed somewhere on my body.

I’ve chased the rest of the world almost my entire life. When I was young I wanted the clothes everyone else had. In my teens I wanted the acceptance that everyone else seemed to have. In my twenties I wanted the family everyone else had. And finally, in my thirties I chase Sports Illustrated, Rolling Stone, Time and the like. Not from a circulation standpoint, more from a company layout and company design standpoint.

Murphy's Law states that "whatever can go wrong, will go wrong." In no two forums is that law more applicable than foster care and magazine publishing. I’m sure there are thousands of occupations and situations where that is true, but I run a magazine about foster care, so just go with it.

Each month, after the completion of the last issue, I prepare with a new vigor.

I have trouble throwing things away.

I’m not a hoarder or anything, I’ve got a wife who makes sure things don’t get out of control, but I won’t throw things away voluntarily. Through wisdom gained with age I’ve been able to narrow it all down to a small handful of reasons. One of those reasons was the catalyst for what you are reading now. But in true Chris fashion, it’ll take me a bit to get there.

You want the foster care reason first, I get that. So here it is.

You’ve seen it over the last two years. First the print was large, I made it smaller. Then you weren’t sure of the month, I put the month on each cover. You thought
more issues of care needed covered, I added sections. I have switched and shuffled. Moved and changed. Adapted and adjusted as I’ve gone along.

Once again I lugged that big ole suitcase down the steps and out to my car. Once again I checked my route and filled the car with gas. Once again I grabbed some
snacks and tuned in the satellite radio.

Normally, the Editor’s Notes are the first thing I’ll do to start an issue. It’s a good way to vent about the stresses of the previous issue and a good way to look back to
find ways I can improve for the next month. I said, I normally do that. This month was not normal.

Occasionally I will have a good idea. The result of my good ideas is generally more work for me. I think I’ve proven the work isn’t what scares me, it’s the old foster
care side effect, no confidence.

The subject of prescription medication has been everywhere in the past month, due in large part to an ABC 20/20 special where Diane Sawyer let the nation in on what those of us
close to the foster care industry already knew; America’s foster youth are overly medicated.

Well, I had a busy month! In addition to playing catch up from the great flood of 2011, I have been bouncing all around the northeast section of
the country taking in all the different aspects of foster care. I have met pioneers in the industry, award winning writers, dedicated state workers
and many others excited that the magazine has passed the half year mark. Oh and I took a picture.