Eight & Nine

I took a week hiatus and am now writing to you after class nine.

Last week's topic was not part of our normal PS-MAPP curriculum but the information was nevertheless important to discuss as many children come into the foster system after suffering from abuse.  Specifically, sexual abuse.   Sadly, we live in a world where people are less than honorable towards those we should be caring for the most: children.  It is heart breaking that statistics they quote tell us 1 in 3 women and 1 in 10 men report having been abused.   Oh that people would receive the cure that would prevent this abuse from taking place.

This week we talked about the family as a system.  We drew an Eco-map of our family that showed our connections to each other as well as to systems (family, church, badminton, hobbies, etc.) in our life that we give energy to and receive energy back from (or not) from that entity.  We also looked at the impact that bringing a child would have on those systems in our life.  It was an interesting visual to see where we expend and get our energy.  It's kind of funny because Josh and I have something going on basically every night - yet looking at other people's Eco-maps ours was fairly simple!  If I can get a picture of our map from our adoption specialist, then I will post it.  I also think we could have spent some more thought into the impact of the child in our life.  We were a little distracted because it was our turn to bring the snacks!  I was enjoying my chocolate peanut butter ice cream (with hot fudge) and my mind was not concentrating very well on identifying the 5 systems most affected by a child entering our home.

Our friend from class took the following picture from snack time:

Bringing Ice Cream Sundaes for Snack Night

We are becoming friends with more couples from class.  I am counting on them to be a good resource as we move forward in this journey.