From toys to shoes, the rooms in the Thomases' Rosedale home are ready. All that Berlie Thomas, a foster parent for 29 years, wants is the state to allow her to care for children once again, especially the three grandchildren she and her husband, Robert Lee Thomas, took in as foster children when his daughter became unable to care for them.
"This is going to be a very big challenge for me, but I'm going to fight them. They're not going to keep my grandkids," Berlie Thomas said.
Last year, the Department of Social Services removed the grandchildren -- 2-year-old twin girls and an 8-month-old boy -- after serious allegations arose against Robert Lee Thomas. A child who the couple took in back in 2006 who hadn't lived with them for more than six years accused Robert Lee Thomas of sexual abuse and rape. Police arrested him. He denies the allegations.
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Feel bad for him, but this brings up something I think is BS. Why should a grandparent be able to become a "foster parent" for their own grandchildren, thus allowing them to be paid by the state for homing the foster children, and the children are on full benefits through the state. If my child has a problem with his kid, I take them in, I may try to get the health benefits, but if I can afford it, I will care for them, because that's what family does. Why can these people do this. It promotes young people having children, just to give them up to their parents. Being as many of them are under 18 when they start, you do the math as to how much some of these people get from the state and federal government.
ReplyDeleteI agree 2:22. It's a way for family members to use children as meal tickets. These people seem to have made a career out of being foster parents. That's an honorable position EXCEPT for the fact they did a horrid job of raising their own. If they were actually good parents this wouldn't be even a story and their own child would be raising the grandchildren. There big mistake was allowing the children to even be put in the system and they have no one to blame but themselves for this situation.
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