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The Girl in the Corner By Analiz González
There’s a law that says there can be no more than four children to a houseparent. Since this couple has eight, only four kids can go out with the dad while the others wait with the mom. So when the door shut behind the last of the lucky four, a boy who was stuck indoors screamed at the top of his lungs. His house mom scooped him up and bounced him on one arm while cradling a baby on the other. That’s when I noticed a little girl standing in the corner of the entrance. She wasn’t hollering for attention like the other baby. She was looking at her shoes and her lips quivered down to a frown. I got on my knees so she could see my eyes. “You’ll get to play outside in a bit,” I told her. She didn’t look up. I tried Spanish. “Ahorita sigues tu, corazón.” The language must have sparked something; because she raised her arms to be held and I felt her curly head fall on my shoulder. It fit there perfectly. What I told God at that moment was ridiculous. I’ll tell you that right now. But it made sense in my head. “I could keep her God. I really can. If this couple can handle eight, I can take care of one.” I know it’s insane. But when that kid was in my arms, she was my baby—at least in my head. Of course I can’t keep her. I’m 23. I’m single. I just graduated from college. I can barely support myself. There’s no way I can be a foster parent. Not yet. But there are a lot of people who can. “It must be hard to foster children,” I told Monica Skrzypinski, community affairs director for the Rio Grande Valley Children’s Home. “I don’t know if I’d be able to let go of the kids.” “Yeah,” she said. “Some of the foster parents cry for days when they take the children away. They just have to believe that they did their part in that kid’s life.” She explained that there’s a shortage of foster parents; that often, children have to be taken to foster homes in other parts of the state, where the culture and the language are different from what they know. And where it’s harder for them to visit with their parents. A recent Associated Press article stated that foster care systems are overcrowded. At least 37 hard-to-place children slept in CPS offices in January. When it was time for me to leave, I gave the baby to her housemother and her mouth went back to a frown. I walked quickly to the door and fought back tears. As I walked to the door, I was determined to not look back, but I did. She was watching me, her black eyes following me out. The housemother watched too. One day, that woman will have to walk away from that little girl like I was doing now. She knows that. She’s dreading that moment. But she also knows she’s doing a lot of good for her, providing her with a home and a family where she feels safe and loved, where she never has to be scared or go hungry. It’s a difficult thing for the foster mom to do, but it’s best for the baby. And to her, that’s what really matters. “Thank you for foster parents God,” I thought. “And make more people willing to take it up.”
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When we opened the door to one of the houses in the Rio Grande Valley Children’s Home, there were six toddlers lined up to play outside. But only the first four got to go.
