Kim's first placement

 I always share the story of my first placement because it had the biggest impact on my life! The two little children we brought into our home a 2 year old little boy and a 6 month old little girl. We were so excited!! But had no idea what was ahead of us! When we first started doing care we worked with the Christmas Box House, so it was the CBH that dropped the kids off, let me tell you how sad it was to see this little 6 month old baby girl in her car seat! She looked right through me, when I say right through me I mean as if she didn't even know I existed! She had no expression on her face, she could not sit up, hold her head up, nothing! The little boy James came in and was so willing to run and play, but didn't really care much about who we were or that he was in a different place than he had been in. Severe attachment disorder, and severe neglect! I was heart broken!! We had a lot of work ahead of us, but I was determined that we were going to help these kids.
James was a very difficult 2 year old and loved to get into trouble, so we had to learn how to work with him to help him make better choices. It was a challenge to say the least! But after a while, he did start to learn!
Autumn, would have been content to sit in her chair or lay in a crib all day long with no interaction at all. She didn't cry for food, didn't care if she had a dirty diaper and could care less if anyone looked at her or not. Well that didn't work for me! So we started by just holding her, and not putting her down! Yup, I held her all the time! She was talked to, sung to, played with and just cuddled. We never propped bottles, she was always held for feedings, and guess what she learned very fast that she liked it! After just a short while she started to smile, she started to interact with us, she even started to cry when she was hungry. Some of you might not think that is so great, but I remember how excited I was when she cried for her bottle! I think I might have even jumped up and down! Soon she was sitting up by herself, rolling over and laughing! I was thrilled! It was so much fun to watch these kids grow and change, and it was so hard to let them go and move on to a new family, but I knew from all that I had learned from these kids that we could make a difference and that no matter how hard it was it would be worth it!