Trauma

Well, those of you who know me personally know that last week was full of crisis and trauma.  My week started out in a 2 day crisis response class.  Unfortunately crisis response is part of my job.  It seems like every year at least one district out of my office deals with the death of a student.  As a school social worker, I go into schools when asked to provide supports to the students and staff.  I do find it fulfilling to ensure that students have a safe place to talk about their friend, their memories and their feelings.  Well, who would have guessed that one of the communities that my office serves would have a major crisis on Monday.  I am thankful that no children were hurt, but a sheriff's officer was killed and the shooter was later killed by police.  This is a very small close knit community.  Unknown to me until Tuesday morning a co-worker was directly impacted by the incident.  Tuesday was spent supporting my co-worker/friend.  It is so hard to see this friend go through this pain and know that there is little that can be done or said to make her or her family feel less guilt about what happened.  Then as I was driving to work on Friday morning, my mom called to say my dad was in the ER!  Needless to say I turned around and headed to the hospital about an hour away.  Thankfully, my dad is fine.  He was released early in the afternoon on Friday and is now getting further evaluation and testing by his general doctor. 

So, all this crisis and trauma has made me think about about adoption.  How much do the children being adopted understand what is happening and how traumatic is it for them.  They are taken away from the orphanage.  No matter how bad the orphanages seem to us, it is the only home they know.  They are use to specific care givers who they will never see again.  They are handed over to people who speak a different language that they don't understand, invade their space and immediately start exposing them to new things.  Just when things are starting to settle a little.....they have to go on an airplane and travel for a LONG time.  Not understanding where they are going or what is waiting for them.  No wonder many of the children don't sleep on the trip home.  I can't image how overwhelmed these little ones must feel.  I have read about how many kids who have lived in orphanages having sensory overload issues when in new places or around too many people....I understood that concept, but I didn't quite get it how huge it might be.  So, I can say that although last week was horrible and stressful, it gave me some "ah ha" big light bulb moments.