I am taking this time and opportunity to deviate from writing about my business The Chesapeake Bay Christmas Co, and speak instead about someone whose life and and life's journey is very dear to my heart... His name is Adam.
Adam is 20 years old. He is a charming young adult in the prime of his life...but he is engaged in a fight to preserve the quality of his life. Adam has severe Cerebral Palsy from birth and some severe anxiety behaviors that manifested in his late teens. Adam is very bright, very sensitive and above all wants to have a future. Adam dreams about his tomorrows. Adam's life is dreaming about his tomorrows....
Adam is 20 years old, looking at turning 21, and is now in a Medicaid level nursing home that houses very debilitated Senior Citizens. These elderly are waiting out their last days with bodies and minds that have betrayed them. Many have Alzheimer's and dementia and are unaware that there are any tomorrows. It is a place that we do not like to think about...a place that most of us hope we will never have to see....a place that we send our hopeless and helpless to die...So.... Why is Adam here? He is here because there is no other place that would take him...because of his severe disabilities and his anxiety disorder...
Adam feels his future slipping away...so naturally his anxiety is mounting... and that in turn threatens to insure that all of his tomorrows may be spent wheeling himself through the sour halls of this last stop place or potentially another one even worse...He clings tightly to his past which is a childhood of love, acceptance, community, Special Olympic's athletics, and limited independence. A past that was given to him by a singular loving family that opened their hearts and home to him when he was four. A family that accepted him and his disabilities, that invested their time, love and resources in him after he was removed by social services from a family that could not provide adequately for him or meet his physical needs. This foster family is still in his life ... still loving him and trying to emotionally support him...but any power they ever had to help him has been stripped away by "the system".
Adam is at the mercy of "the system". He is at the mercy of our tax dollars or lack thereof, of legal waivers or lack thereof, of agencies and more agencies and their employees who often refuse to think or perform outside of the box. He is at the mercy of the ragged rips and tears in this great Country's safety net. The safety net that our politicians assure us is there...for the helpless...for those that absolutely cannot provide for themselves... but it is not... for Adam...he is in free fall... and we must catch him before he hits bottom.
The people that love and support Adam, the family and friends who care about him now have no power in his life! How did this happen? How can the fact that it did happen be used to effect change? That is why I write today...that is why I will continue to write...
This article will be continued.... please pass it on to others ...Adam needs resources.. resources that are not available to him...help by passing this on to shed light on a dark corner in our state's (VA) and nation's policies that show a complete absence of resources for our most vulnerable citizens...physically and emotionally disabled foster children.
Thank you for following...
Lynn McPherson
Owner of the Chesapeake Bay Christmas Co...bringing the Chesapeake into your home and Holidays!
www.chesapeakebaychristmas.com
