Maddie Made It Out of Intensive Foster Care
At Bridges Homeward, we believe that if we support children and families to develop safe and permanent relationships, they will maximize their individual growth and community participation. But what does that mean? Bridges Homeward staff assisted Maddie from birth and extended neonatal hospitalization, through intensive foster care, to adoption by her biological aunt, Patricia. This past February, Maddie moved to Texas to be with Patricia, but there were a lot of twists and turns along the way!
When Maddie* was born in March of 2022, she had to stay in the hospital for over a month due to being exposed to substances while in utero. She was referred to Bridges Homeward’s Intensive Foster Care (IFC) team and entered foster care with Veronica, a Bridges Homeward foster mother who specializes in fostering infants. Our IFC team first met Maddie when she was still in the hospital. Our staff and Veronica stayed by her side in the hospital. Veronica used this time to learn how to administer medication to Maddie for her withdrawal symptoms.
After Maddie was moved from the hospital into Veronica’s foster home, she started to make significant medical progress and was slowly weaned off medication. Maddie also enrolled in Early Intervention, a program that supports infants and toddlers ages 0-3 who have or are at risk of having developmental delays.
While Maddie's health was improving in her foster home, our staff were working closely with the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families to identify family for her to start making permanency connections. Eventually, we found a paternal aunt named Linda* who wanted to be a part of Maddie’s life.
Our staff advocated strongly with DCF to start in-person visits between Maddie and her aunt, at the very least to reestablish the little girl’s connection to her family. Finally, after six months in foster care with no contact with any biological family, Maddie had her first visit with her Aunt Linda. Bridges Homeward staff ensured that Maddie and Linda had regular monthly visits. It soon became clear that Linda was not going to be able to adopt Maddie. Still, for a whole year, Linda was Maddie’s connection to her biological family. Maintaining that connection is invaluable for children in foster care.
After roughly a year in foster care, another family member was identified as a potential adoptive resource for Maddie. Aunt Patricia* lived in Texas, and came forward in the spring of 2023 as being potentially interested in adopting Maddie. Once Patricia’s initial background check was completed, she and Maddie started to build their relationship. They had weekly virtual visits with each other over the summer of 2023, until Patricia came to visit Maddie in November.
Patricia and Maddie had a wonderful visit with each other that fall, and it became clear that Patricia was a great adoptive match for her niece. This past January, Patricia’s interstate adoption request was formally approved by the state of Texas, and it was planned for Maddie to move to Texas the following month. Our foster care team leapt into action, collaborating with Massachusetts DCF and Patricia to ensure that Maddie had a smooth transition into her new home. We educated Patricia on all Maddie’s medical needs, her important Early Intervention program, and all the great work Veronica had been doing to improve Maddie’s health.
When it was time for Maddie to move, Bridges Homeward social workers and foster parents made sure she went to her new home with all her belongings from Boston. We gave Maddie a life book with photos and information about the period of time from her first day in the hospital to her last week in Veronica’s foster home. On February 26, 2024, Maddie moved to Texas to be with Patricia. Today, her health continues to improve.
At Bridges Homeward, we firmly believe that if children and families receive the support they need to develop safe and permanent relationships, they will maximize their individual growth and community participation. There are many children still in need of permanency across the Commonwealth. As Maddie’s story illustrates, the needs can be highly specialized and quite intensive. Bridges Homeward is strongly positioned to meet that need, to provide high quality services in highly specialized ways.
*Names have been changed