3.03.2010

Cracker Barrel guest brought me to tears...

So one day last week I was in the dining room talking to guests when I hear a child crying.  As I walk to the front of the dining room I notice at the big round table is a little blonde haired, blue eyed girl screaming bloody murder.  I am talking about a piercing cry that has all of our guests turning in her direction.  The man and woman with her looked to be in their 50s and so I assumed that they were her grandparents.  Much to my dismay they couldn't calm her down at all so I started trying to talk to her.  The man said she is mad because they gave her little brother (also blonde haired and blue eyed) a drink of her milk.  The little boy, whom I later heard him called Jake, was right the opposite of this little girl.  He didn't hear her.  He just kept smiling.  Also sitting at the table was another little girl and boy (both blonde hair and blue eyes too).  They looked to be about 4 and 5.  As the little girl continues to scream with no end in sight, I continue to talk to the lady.  She says that the little girl does this all the time and there is nothing they can do but let her.  They just make sure she is in a safe place to where she can't hurt herself or anyone else.  I am really bothered by this but I can't do anything really.  I go out into the gift shop and find a toy to bring to the little girl but the lady quickly informs me that she should not be rewarded for acting like this.  The man then gets up to go pay the bill so I walk out with him and casually mentions "So you got your hands full, huh?".  He says, "Yeah but they are not ours.  They are foster kids."  So we continue in this little conversation where he lets me know they are all siblings.  He asks me if I have a nice, quite home that needs some children.  I let him know that I have a little girl myself but I do know someone that has been looking into adoption.  He told me that the children were up for adoption or would end up going back to "the home". 
As I went back to the table, the older little girl who had not said a word the entire time, came up to me and got my hand.  I bent down, her sad little blue eyes looked at me and asked "Are we going home with you?"  At that moment my heart broke into a million tiny pieces and all I wanted to do was wrap my arms around her in a big hug and say "Yes".  The lady gave me a card and let me know that they have had these children for a year and a half.  She told me that they had been abused and that is why the 2 1/2 little girl cried like she did.  Sometimes she cried for 3 hours at night when they put her to bed.  I told them bye but I could not get that one sentence out of my head..."Are we going home with you?"  I went to the office and literally started to cry.
I am not sure how people can become foster parents.  I really admire people who do because I know that I would get to attached to the children and it would be to hard to let them go.  I can't help think that if this had been a younger, more nurturing couple that the little girl would not have been screaming the entire time they were there.  There was no affection from the man or woman towards the children which I can only imagine is the only way to keep your heart from being broke.  But at the same time, those children that I saw needed love and affection from someone.  I wished there was a way that I could have taken all 4 of those beautiful children home with me.  I only hope and pray that a very nice, loving couple comes along and surrounds them with love and affection.

No comments:

Post a Comment