Donald and Harold*are twins born into a poor family near the
U.S.
border with Mexico . Their mother, having given birth to three
older children, became pregnant with them during a period in which she was
separating from an abusive husband and starting a lifelong addiction to
methamphetamine. Born prematurely at
five and a half and three pounds respectively, Donald and Harold were handed
over to their maternal grandmother who attempted to keep the children together. Child welfare services came in and out of the
boys’ lives until they were removed at age two.
They were placed in foster care and then back with an older sister and
her husband who were starting their own young family. Like their mother, their sister found
methamphetamine to treat what was likely intergenerational depression. Donald and Harold fended for themselves and
attempted to hide from fighting and physical abuse. Case workers moved the boys from family to foster
homes where they grew up, now difficult to place because of age, gender, and
number, into a second then third adoptive home with a woman who brought her new
eight year old sons to my office. We
worked together three years.