"That embrace- I can still feel it. I kept that photo close to me because it was a safe place in my mind. It was the first bit of normalcy. I felt so much love and support. It was peaceful - I'd never been exposed to anything like it before."
"In their home, there were chore charts with gold stars and shared dinners, Christmas mornings and bedtime prayers. Ronnie once dressed up as Santa Claus, a surprise that felt, to a little girl, like magic arriving at the front door. I can't express how great it was being a normal kid."
"But the arrangement was never meant to last. After several months - somewhere between six and nine, by her memory - the courts ordered that she be returned to her biological mother. The decision, routine in a system built around reunification, felt anything but routine to a 6-year-old Cawley."
Ginger Cawley entered the foster care system around age 5 amid childhood instability and experienced abuse in multiple homes. Placement with Paula, Ronnie, and their son Ian provided her first experience of normalcy, safety, and consistent love through everyday family activities like chore charts, shared meals, Christmas celebrations, and community involvement. This peaceful period lasted only six to nine months before court-ordered reunification returned her to her biological mother at age 6. The separation left a profound emotional wound, though Cawley preserved a photograph of her foster mother's embrace as a mental refuge through subsequent years of homelessness and upheaval.
Read at TODAY.com
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