A Safe Place

By Deb P.

I am a grandmother that adopted my two older grandchildren, now 18 and 19 years old. Five years ago, I also took guardianship of their younger siblings (8 and 11), one of which is a challenging child right now.

Recently I had a really hard day with him. So, I picked up the phone and called DCYF. Some people think that DCYF is there to hurt families, but I have learned that in raising all my grandchildren they can be a great resource.

Parenting a second time around can be difficult. A person from Healthy Starts is helping me and my grandson get through the hard days.

I know that he feels like his mom deserted him. She did do that. She made choices that didn’t include the children in her life. But I am here for them. They have a safe place to live. They have stability and lots of love. I know they might not understand that now, but someday they will and things will get better.

For now, I have an angry child that needs help developing coping skills for the anger. I really hope he does. He has had therapy, but during covid he didn’t like the remote counseling. So, he stopped talking to the therapist. I hope, too, that someday he will be willing to give it a try again.

I also have community support through the Grapevine Family & Community Resource Center. I have people that I can call and get support when I need it. I learned about their resources years ago raising my first set of grandchildren. It’s the first place I suggest looking for support and help is in your local community.

There are a lot of other grandparent groups out there, and they have other resources to find what you may need for help. If all else fails, call DCYF they will try and get you in touch with the right resources for you in your local community. No one should go it alone.

Have a KINSHIP STORY of YOUR OWN? Email us at communications@nhchildrenstrust.org. We’d love to hear how you used YOUR VOICE to meet your family’s needs.