AUTHOR'S NOTE: Moving from house to house can be challenging when you are a 12-year old foster child. Hollis Woods has been to so many different homes and been with so many new people she cannot remember them all. Hollis is finally introduced to a family style of living, and gets to know what having a family is like.
Every day children are getting adopted, moving into foster homes, and relocating to a new family. Hollis Woods, a twelve year-old girl and foster child was abandoned at the age of one day old. She has been to so many foster care homes she can’t remember them all. She finally finds a home she likes with the Regan family. After the Regan’s car accident, Hollis runs away because she felt the accident was her fault.
Hollis blames herself for the accident while nobody else blamed it on her. Hollis runs from the foster agency and Regan family until the police found her. She rejected the offer at first to be adopted by the Regan family because of the accident. Instead, she feels the need to find a way to be able to stay with Josie, the only other foster parent she liked being with although Josie’s health is deteriorating. Josie cannot care for Hollis. The Regan family is persistent about adopting Hollis. Hollis is a confused young child and isn’t alone because this sad truth is happening to real kids around the world every day going in and out of foster homes on a regular basis.
Hollis is just one of 408,425 children in the U. S. that are in foster care. Each one of these children needs a home and loving family. I think it would be really hard living as a foster child. Foster children don’t have a stable home environment or the continuous family love or support from parents. Foster kids are not living in the same home for an extended period of time. They struggle to fully understand what it means to be truly cared for, loved to the fullest and feel secure.
Without feeling secure when moving things could be challenging. For Hollis a new home, school, family and many other new things can be quite challenging. She can move right away and once again her life changes right away They don’t know when it’s coming or where you will end up. You have no time to prepare yourself. I can’t imagine living my life like Hollis has for so many years. To me, it all sounds very frightening. I can’t imagine what Hollis and many other foster kids have had to go through alone.
Unlike other foster kids and Hollis, I have a loving family and a great home. I cannot even dream of what it would be like to be independent and rely on yourself for everything like Hollis did. It would make the world a very lonely and a scary place. Relating to Hollis is hard for me because I have a supporting family with caring parents and loving siblings. I am surrounded by a lot of love and I know I have a place in my family and community.
Without love and support Hollis must feel lost and alone and always wonders where she will fit in. I don’t know what life would be like living as a foster child. I am glad I will never truly know. I feel extremely bad for children like Hollis, and I wish they did not have to experience life like this.
For the people that haven't experienced this and have more than others, they need to realize what they have and be thankful for it. At one point of the book and movie, Hollis was sleeping on a couch on the side of a busy road. She had nothing at the time which is why I think the theme of this story was a very good life-lesson because it makes you realize how lucky and appreciative you should be for what you have in your family and life.
Family, friends, home, community with many good experiences so far as the 12-year old I am with plenty more quality experiences to look forward to down the road. I hope Hollis makes the most of her opportunity to become a member of the Regan family to get to experience some of the things I am fortunate to have in my life.
