Yesterday, I added music to my blog. I hope it works and that you are all listening. I love this song, Mighty to Save by Hillsong.

Everyone needs compassion

A love that's never failing

Let mercy fall on me

Everyone needs forgiveness

Kindness of a Savior

The hope of nations

Saviour, He can the move the mountains

My God is Mighty to Save

While pounding out yesterday's blog, I did realize that my blog did not sound compassionate in regard to DFCS, especially when the first sentence of my newly added music speaks of compassion. Therefore, I will clarify while responding to the comment left by Andrea on my previous post. I'm very sincere when I say, that I value your take on the matter. But as always, I'm up for a good debate.

I am compassionate...but about the children, not DFCS.

The following is an excerpt from my local newspaper:

The Daily Citizen newspaper on 11/22/08
‘In a community crisis’ for the holidays
By Mark Millican

"This holiday season Whitfield County has 229 children in foster care, yet only 28 foster homes in which to place them. That means only “75 to 92 kids” can be placed here, said ***** ****** with the Whitfield Department of Family and Children Services. The other children go to group homes, therapeutic foster homes and foster homes in other counties,” she said. “The majority of children in our care are not in this county.”


The numbers speak for themselves. There is a dire need for foster homes (and we are approved for foster to adopt). Yet, our home study sat on a desk for way too long. I learned that DFCS has no plan B for unexpectancies. One lady was out of work for a week and there was no other person in the office that could review our home study and sign off in her place. What if she just up and quit and walked out on the job? What would happen then? Would everything be put on hold until the job could be post for x amount of days, people interviewed, someone hired and then trained? Gosh, that could be up to 90 days and possibly longer!


You see, DFCS solicits foster and adoptive home, but then does very little other than solicit the need. Then they turn around and use the same need to bilk money out of our local community. Today, our preacher mentioned that oftentimes Satan presents himself as something shiny and beautiful in order to deceive you. I immediately thought of DFCS. Yes, it was probably started with the best of intentions but now it has become a nasty monster that ruins and wrecks lives of so many undeserving children.


While, I understand that there are probably many good SW's out there doing their best, I do understand that there are many complacent and jaded ones. The complacent ones need to move to another career path. But I assume a lot of them are putting their own needs and desires before the ones they are to be helping. Why else would they stay in a low paying job with very little job satisfaction other than for retirement benefits? Government employees are a protected species and that should not the case...THEY NEED TO BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE! Their feet need to be held to the fire. They need to do the job they are hired to do! I hate it that social work does not pay more, I really do; BUT they are the ones that choose the career field!



I work for a Fortune 100 company where I'm held accountable for my work product. I work 40 PLUS hours a week There are never enough hours in the day to get the job done. The Social Worker in the above-mentioned newspaper article works four days a week and she is the adoption coordinator for our county. If they are so back logged, then they need to hire someone that can work five days a week! Oh and lest we forget, there is a government paid holiday almost every month! With unemployment so high, this would be a great time for DFCS to clean house and get rid of some of the disgruntled paper pushers. I would venture to say there are a lot of qualified people that would be willing to fill those vacancies these days.


I work a job that I thoroughly enjoy and I'm very good at it. If I'm going to get up and report to a job everyday, then I'm going to give it my all or I don't need to give it anything at all! However, considering the current state of the economy there is no such thing as job security anymore. With that being said, I'm always thinking of potential jobs that I might enjoy should I get laid off. About 13 years ago while at the University of Georgia, I researched every possible major that required minimal math to graduate. I did look into the School of Social Work. I learned quickly that Social Workers are over worked and underpaid so that is not something new to me.

I obviously choose a different career route. Now that I'm married and not the sole breadwinner in my family, I would and could consider taking a job that pays a 1/3 of what I make at my current job (not including perks such as working from home or a company car for personal use) because I am very passionate (not compassionate) the short comings of "the system." At this point, I have done very little research into this, but I would be interested in Social Work if:
1. I lost my current job
2. I didn't have to go back to college - I already have an advance degree
Otherwise, I would ENJOY making a splash into that stale pool of water!

I will never put my arms around complacency and give it a hug. I simply cannot embrace it. Complacency is a terrible, terrible thing. Andrea, you have accepted the mediocrity of "the system" but I will never accept something that lets so many children down. Indeed, the system is broken, however I do truly believe that a big change can begin at a grass roots level if people took more personal accountability for their job and their actions.