Day 5 of Travel

One important thing I have learned about childrearing practice in this community is how important family is. They are raised with the belief that family is the most important thing. When someone has a child and for some reason, they are unable to care for their child, the child will go to another family member. It is not uncommon to see a grandparent caring for a young child. They also make sure that the children stay within the Cherokee tribe. If a child needs to be fostered there are people within in the community that they can call who will come to care for the children until they can find a more permanent solution. When we went to the church tonight almost every family that was there had foster children. I also noticed that there were several children there that were with their grandparents. I was able to learn that there are times the parents do get to continue to interact with their children with the hope that one day the child will be able to reunited with their parent. This also allows the children to be apart of their family if they do have to be fostered by someone outside of their family. I feel like the big support systems in the community are the families and church. Like I have stated before this is a family orientated community that work together to make sure that the needs of the community are being met. I have also learned that the church can be a big support on the community. They help to create resources for families and they have helped to coordinate the donations that we have given them and made sure that they make it to who has the most need for it. I feel that most children and family who are resilient can survive in any situation. They have been through things like growing up with addiction and trauma that I cannot begin to understand. From personal experience I know that growing up with a parent who is addicted can make you have to grow up quickly and can make you more of a parent figure to your own parent than having the opportunity to be a child or teenager. I feel that this can make you a stronger person and it can be easier to deal with a stressful situation because it is something that you have been going through your whole life.