How Do You Not Love Your Child?

"I'm not 2 years old." She snapped to the police. The attitude this 10 year old girl had in her was abnormal. The cop was talking to her about how you can go to jail (juvey) as early as eight years old. This young girl had run away from home, got in a strange mans car, got out of his car near a highway, and continued to wander around until her teacher saw her. Her parent were worried, and had been frantically searching for her. They asked the cops to talk to her, and she got pissy with them. This girl is my cousin. She was adopted by my aunt and uncle along with her sister while in the foster care program. She was removed from her parents becasue her parents were unfit. She suffered from fetal alcohol syndrom, as well as all the other drugs her mom took while she was pregnant. She's biopolar, and is out of control. My aunt and uncle do everything they can to take care of her, her sister, their son, and their eldest daughter.

I am sickened by the fact that a mother can do that to her child. Drinking, smoking, and doing drugs while you're pregnant is absolutley horrible! There have been so many other kids that went through my aunts house while she was a foster parent, and I can't beleieve that their parents didn't take care of them. One boy was physically abused by his moms boyfriend, and she just let it happen. He was the sweetest and most loving boy I've ever meet in my life! He just wanted someone to love him! Two girls, sisters, came to my aunts house. They'd been neglected by their mother. The first time she saw them after they were taken from her she yelled at my aunt. Saying what did you do to their hair. She thought their hair was a dark brown, but really after they'd been washed their hair was bleach blonde! Almost white. The oldest of the girls maybe 4 or 5 took care of her little sister. Feed her, bathed her, put her to bed. She was very frustrated when my aunt or uncle tried to do it because that was her job.

I live with my mom and my step-dad. I've never meet my biological father. He and my mom broke up before I was ever born, and when she told him about me he wanted nothing to do with me. My mom met my step-dad when I was 3, and they got married when I was 5. He adopted me while I was in 3rd grade. In order to adopt me, my bio-dad had to sign over all paternal rights. Which he did with no problem. I love my step-dad, and I call him my dad. He's been there for me my entire life, and I wouldn't change anything with him for the world. But it just hurts to know that my bio-dad wants nothing to do with me. I found out through a family friend that my mom and him still share, that he has 3 children with his wife and they live in Venezuala. He hasn't told anyone about me as far as we can tell. Not his parents, wife, and he will probably never tell my half-siblings.

I don't see how you can walk away from a child. I don't see how you can hurt them, ignore them, and just plain not love them. They are forever a part of you, and they will carry that with them for the rest of their life. I've talked to people who have similar situations, and it's not something that you can just forget. I've even talked to a man who walked away from his child. He wanted nothing more than to take it back. He now has a great relationship with her, and regrets not being there for everything in her childhood. But he'll never get that back. Neither will the child. When you love something you don't just let it go, you release it with your arms right there to catch it if it stumbles.