Marching Forward

“With vision there is no room to be frightened., No reason for intimidation. It's time to march forward! Let's be confident and positive!”

~~Charles R. Swindoll ~~ What an extraordinary month March has turned out to be!  Our new friend George remains in my care for the time being but that is soon to change.  As my home is deemed an Alternate Family Living Arrangement (AFLA), policies say I am allowed no more than two people to live here (not including family).  Since George was placed here under emergency circumstances it was inevitable that his stay would be short, only until a permanent placement could be found.  Unfortunately there are no openings in the St. George area where George's family live and it was being recommended that he take a spot in a St. Stephen home.  Neither George, nor his family wanted to see this happen and they stood firm in their decision that he be placed here in town.  I received a call from Social Development asking if Brooke (my daughter) would be interested in getting her own place and having George live with her, starting up her own AFLA.  This is an important step for Brooke not to mention a huge responsibility so much thought and consideration must be taken before accepting or declining.  Since Brooke has been living here and assisting me for over a year the concept of AFLA is not new to her.  After great deliberation and thoughts of the future she has decided to go on this great new adventure, I am so excited for her!!  We have found a nice house to invest in and hope to have everything in place for the end of April if not before. Now, having said all of this I refer you back to the quote at the beginning of my post.  Since moving here I have worked in 3 different areas of caring for people with some form of disability.  One in particular I witnessed a type of abuse that can be worse than physical abuse because it is the invisible abuse.  Demeaning people, squelching their dreams until they no longer have any, ignoring their rights and forcing them to live in oppressed circumstances.  Being only one person it is difficult to change the lives of everyone but I have realized the fulfilment that comes with changing even the lives of few.  Having a vision has allowed me to let my life spread out before me in a way that working day to day and pay check to pay check never can.  I am not afraid to speak out and go for what I believe in because it's not really about me.  It's for the people that need my help and for that I have to be confident and not be intimidated by policy pressures and political agendas.  Peoples lives and dreams are hanging in the balance so I must March on!!! I am very proud of Brooke as well as my other daughter Kristie, (who also works in the field of Developmental Disabilities) for seeing the value in supporting others to reach their dreams and in doing so I am sure that they will find dreams of their   own will start coming true right along with them.