Fighting For My Foster Babies

My name is Melissa and I have been a foster parent for the past 6 plus years. I am a Safe Babies Certified Care Home, so that means I specialize in care for infants and toddlers who are born pre-natally exposed to drugs and/or alcohol. In November of 2020 my life changed in the most unbelievable way when a beautiful and perfect baby boy named V was placed into my home and my heart. V is now 2 years and 9 months old. In February of 2022 V's precious baby brother K was born and joined our family. K is now 16 months old. We are in the fight of a lifetime for these boys and could really use your help.

Normally I am a stubborn and independent person who doesn't like to ask for help. I think most of us can relate to that. But for these boys I will do anything. I love them more than life. This situation has all happened very quickly in just a couple of short weeks, and as soon as Guardianship is granted then the boys and myself will be cut off from all MCFD funding and supports immediately. During this fight I am also trying to find another job to support us, find daycare for the boys so that I can work, find funding for all of the much needed therapies and specialists both boys need and use regularly for their neurodivergent challenges, as well as try to come up with thousands of dollars to pay for a lawyer to help fight for us. This is where and when I need to put my pride aside and ask for help for V, K and myself in this fight to become a forever family together. If you are able to help in any way, shape or form we will be eternally grateful. Whether that be in the form of a $5 or $0.05 donation, sharing this post with others, everything and anything counts. Please share this with as many people as possible to get the word out. Please help me to save these beautiful, special and perfect little boys from being just another statistic in a very flawed system. Please help me to fight to give them a forever home.

The Ministry of Children and Family Development MCFD is sadly a very flawed and failing system. To them, V and K are just a number on a file. To me, these boys are my world. They have been with me since birth and are my babies, my heart and soul. What MCFD are trying to do here to these boys is a modern day version of Residential Schools, taking these innocent Indigenous children away from their families and everything and everyone they know and love. Without going into too many details, MCFD are trying to rip the boys away from everyone they know and love. This means biological family, myself, their respite family, all of their supports (Physio, OT, Speech, BI, AIDP, and more). With the advocacy and support of V and K's biological family, the Representative of Children and Youth, The BC Ombudsperson, the family's Band, RMCDC, our numerous doctors, and countless more organizations and individuals, we have been trying to make MCFD change their care plan for the boys. But, unfortunately, at the end of the day only MCFD can decide what happens to the children while they are in Ministry custody. And in a foster parent role, I legally have no rights or say in the matter. So now the time has come to take legal action and start the process of obtaining legal Guardianship of these precious boys so that I can have a say and we can leave MCFD to where they no longer have a say.

I have built a beautiful and loving relationship with the biological parents and grandmother over the years that V and K have been with me. The parents have honoured me by calling me "momma" to their precious angels. We have created our own special and unique version of a family together. They want the boys to stay in their safe and loving home with me and we all hope that I can legally adopt them one day to give them a permanent forever home. We have just started the legal process to obtain Guardianship.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this. I truly appreciate all of your support and love for V, K and myself with all of my heart. Please share this and help us fight to become a forever family ❤️