to bad we realy have no money to pay for it

You've got to be kidding me... Doesn't anyone remember Logan Marr, bound, gagged and suffocated in her foster home?

What the governor fails to mention is that hospital units are filled to capacity, teen homeless shelters are packed and many kids are going without services. Simply taking credit for cutting down on the number of people receiving services does not mean that any problems have been resolved, it just means the State is spending less to address them. His 'innovations' are something that we're likely to pay for a few years down the road, when the next generation of parents begins to emerge.

And my husband wonders why i never want children... beyond the fact that they make everything sticky. I would feel guilty bringing a child into this state.

LoriHall:

I , for one, sure do remember what happened to the little girl, Logan Marr. It is horrific and haunting to this day. How that woman (red hair....forget her name at the moment?....."social worker") got away with what she did is something I do not think many can ever grasp. It is was a travesty and worse.

So, yes, this state has a long way to go....and not sure this article(above) is very reassuring at all. Unfortunately....

Sure, place the abused children with their relatives, relatives who stood by and did nothing when these children were abused by their birth parents. Sounds like a plan, way to go Baldacci.

With this new funding for community support while placing kids with family, Logan Marr would not have been in a foster home in the first place. Foster care expenses dropped by 67 percent, that's a lot. Do you people read before you comment?

Are you any better, bad mouthing Baldacci at the expense of what is much better? If you could read, you would see that he is doing what you say you want plus providing community support for these relatives.

Would that include the child that was going to be adopted out of a drug adictedc mothers house as the real father sat in prison on drug charges. The father got out of prison took the son as the Mother did not want him. The adoptive parents were told they would not get the child as the real father had decided to keep him (State says that is best). Broken hearted the adoptive asked if the could still visit the boy as they had been in his life for a few years by now. Father said yes. When they arrived at the home to pick up the boy for the day the house was a pig stye, trash and dog feces on the floor with this 3 year old boy plating in it. The father was passed out in the bedroom. The once adoptive family woke the father took the little boy out to dinner where he proceeded to imitate smoking a joint.

True Story, and chock one up for the State giving the boy to his real father.

chersully: Scofield was her name, if memory serves. Haunting is an appropriate term.

Eridon, we can read. Maybe we've had our hearts broken when our children (that we loved and cared for and were planning to adopt) got taken from us because the relatives (who stood by and did nothing while these kids were abused by their birth families) decided that maybe they should take their "kin" back. Not all foster parents are like Sally Scofield. As far as I can tell, Baldacci hasn't done much good for this State, and I for one will be glad when he's out of office.

It takes very special people to be loving foster parents. You have to be willing to have your hearts broken. You have to be willing to care for a heart broken child. You have to be ready to stand up for these kids and fight when you know that putting them back with their donors is wrong. The truth is that the workers have such large caseloads that they don't know if the biological donors are fit to get their kids back. Of course the focus is returning the child but all too often they suffer. Thank God we were able to adopt two children in the state of Maine.

readtome... so are you saying that if a family member came to your home and said that they thought something you were doing was not ok and they were going to take your kid away, you would be ok with it. Many times, extended families do not like what is going on but what are they to do, just tell their relative that they are taking their kid to live with them. Doesn't work that way without someone like DHHS's assistance.