Abuse & Foster Care Survivor - Helen Ramaglia
Former Foster Child, Foster Adoptive Parent, Congressional Award Winner
Author, Speaker, Trainer and Advocate for Foster Children
Follow Helen on her Facebook page for daily updates and more information.
In 1962, under a bridge, in the back seat of a neighbor's car, a tiny, feisty baby girl came into this world. A fragile little baby so tiny, that she was kept in a shoe box. By the time this little girl was 5 years old she had suffer more pain, more loss, more devastation, and more trauma than most people endure over a life time. By the time this little girl was 10 years old, her childhood had been so traumatic that she was one the verge of a total and complete mental breakdown.
At 17 (almost 18), Helen found herself on the edge of her bed with a handful of sleeping pills. She sat crying and said to herself, "No one wants me, no one loves me and I can't trust anyone. God hates me, man hates me and my entire life has been nothing but pain and devastation Why even go on?" It was three weeks before Helen was to age out of a system that had forgotten about her. You see, she graduated at 16 and no one was guiding her into college, there was no way to get a drivers license and no way to start her adult life. So she felt her only choices were death, marriage, or homelessness. As is often still the case today for aging out youth.
When Helen turned 35 she found herself on her knees begging God to help her put her life back together. The trade off - a book she would someday write. At 35 Helen started putting her life back together and it all started with a book she read that gave her a formula for making good decisions. You see, no one had taught Helen 'how' to make good decisions. In fact, it would come to be that Helen lacked so many life skills that it has taken most of her adult life to fill enormous gaps that should have been filled as a child. Add to that the enormous amount of unresolved emotional issues that followed her into adulthood as well.
Ten years later, Helen decided she was finally ready to remarry. After marriage, she and her husband, John, fostered and later adopted two little boys. The boys were 2 and 2.8 years old the day they walked into their house and they were their 7th set of mommies and daddies. These two little boys lived their entire lives in foster care and were in a deeper state of crisis than Helen was almost 30 years prior. Helen had to fight a vicious fight to procure the resources necessary for her new children to thrive as normal ordinary little boys. Helen says this fight lit a fire in her that burns hotter every day for the right s of children in foster care. She vowed to her new family that their suffering would serve as a catalyst for change .
Today Helen has over come her past and advocates tirelessly for foster children. Helen trains the foster world on how it feels to grow up as 'Nobody's Child'. Growing up as "Nobody's Child" does something to a child that ordinary people don't have be ability to comprehend without truly taking the journey on their own. With 50 years of experience as a foster child and foster adoptive parent Helen has the unique ability to lend a very different perspective on working with, understanding, and parenting foster children. She is not a PhD, but she has an ability to captivate and educate like no one else.
Helen says, "Foster children are not ordinary children, they are extraordinary children; therefore we must be parent the foster child differently. With the right tools.........anyone can guide a foster child to fabulous!" Take the journey of a lifetime, read "From Foster to Fabulous". It's a book you will not be able to put down and one you will never forget. There is no fiction, it's all real, it's all true, and it goes even deeper than the story you read. This might not be the most eloquent read of your life, and there are probably a few grammatical errors, but this is as 'real' as it gets for children in foster care. Life is about survival, education takes a back seat. It's about living everyday in a deep state of crisis that few understand, or even acknowledge.
Come........follow me, take a journey you will never forget. Walk in the shoes of a foster child for just one day.........only then will you understand, why!
In 1962, under a bridge, in the back seat of a neighbor's car, a tiny, feisty baby girl came into this world. A fragile little baby so tiny, that she was kept in a shoe box. By the time this little girl was 5 years old she had suffer more pain, more loss, more devastation, and more trauma than most people endure over a life time. By the time this little girl was 10 years old, her childhood had been so traumatic that she was one the verge of a total and complete mental breakdown.
At 17 (almost 18), Helen found herself on the edge of her bed with a handful of sleeping pills. She sat crying and said to herself, "No one wants me, no one loves me and I can't trust anyone. God hates me, man hates me and my entire life has been nothing but pain and devastation Why even go on?" It was three weeks before Helen was to age out of a system that had forgotten about her. You see, she graduated at 16 and no one was guiding her into college, there was no way to get a drivers license and no way to start her adult life. So she felt her only choices were death, marriage, or homelessness. As is often still the case today for aging out youth.
When Helen turned 35 she found herself on her knees begging God to help her put her life back together. The trade off - a book she would someday write. At 35 Helen started putting her life back together and it all started with a book she read that gave her a formula for making good decisions. You see, no one had taught Helen 'how' to make good decisions. In fact, it would come to be that Helen lacked so many life skills that it has taken most of her adult life to fill enormous gaps that should have been filled as a child. Add to that the enormous amount of unresolved emotional issues that followed her into adulthood as well.
Ten years later, Helen decided she was finally ready to remarry. After marriage, she and her husband, John, fostered and later adopted two little boys. The boys were 2 and 2.8 years old the day they walked into their house and they were their 7th set of mommies and daddies. These two little boys lived their entire lives in foster care and were in a deeper state of crisis than Helen was almost 30 years prior. Helen had to fight a vicious fight to procure the resources necessary for her new children to thrive as normal ordinary little boys. Helen says this fight lit a fire in her that burns hotter every day for the right s of children in foster care. She vowed to her new family that their suffering would serve as a catalyst for change .
Today Helen has over come her past and advocates tirelessly for foster children. Helen trains the foster world on how it feels to grow up as 'Nobody's Child'. Growing up as "Nobody's Child" does something to a child that ordinary people don't have be ability to comprehend without truly taking the journey on their own. With 50 years of experience as a foster child and foster adoptive parent Helen has the unique ability to lend a very different perspective on working with, understanding, and parenting foster children. She is not a PhD, but she has an ability to captivate and educate like no one else.
Helen says, "Foster children are not ordinary children, they are extraordinary children; therefore we must be parent the foster child differently. With the right tools.........anyone can guide a foster child to fabulous!" Take the journey of a lifetime, read "From Foster to Fabulous". It's a book you will not be able to put down and one you will never forget. There is no fiction, it's all real, it's all true, and it goes even deeper than the story you read. This might not be the most eloquent read of your life, and there are probably a few grammatical errors, but this is as 'real' as it gets for children in foster care. Life is about survival, education takes a back seat. It's about living everyday in a deep state of crisis that few understand, or even acknowledge.
Come........follow me, take a journey you will never forget. Walk in the shoes of a foster child for just one day.........only then will you understand, why!
From Foster to Fabulous
|
Congressional Award
Helen with Georgia Representative Tom Price in Washington, DC for award ceremony. http://tomprice.house.gov/press-release/price-honors-sixth-district-%E2%80%9Cangels-adoption%E2%80%9D-winner 
AFPAG Jekyll Island Conference April 2013
Speaking at First Baptist Church of Woodstock , Ga.
Helen talking about her life as a foster child and how we can better understand how to help them become successful adults. 
Helen advocating for foster children in Washington, DC
Helen and NeYo at Award Ceremony
|
Articles Helen has writtenHelen does not claim to be a journalist, words don't come easy for an adult who has spent most of their life too traumatized to talk. So, one must look past the grammar and the content. She says, "I only know 'how' to tell my story as honest as possible." And that she does with an intense passion unlike anything most have heard or seen. But this is real life for a child in a constant state of crisis. Survival mode takes over 'everything' even learning in certain areas.
Therefore, Helen's articles are informative, real, and sometimes might even cause you to cringe, but this is 'reality' for foster children. Do not judge us, just please hear us, even if the words could be put in much better form and not always eloquently written. This is 'real life' for foster children. Welcome to foster REALITY - Helen with Actress Katherine Heigl at Award Ceremony
a
Helen & Steven Curtis Chapman in Washington, DC
x
Contact Information:
www.fosteringsuperstars.org or email - hramaglia@fosteringsuperstars.org |
