Samantha's Story At age six, Samantha entered the foster care system. Thus began her roller coaster ride of jumping from foster home to foster home...

At the age of six years old, Samantha entered the foster care system after being neglected by her drug-addicted mother and abused by her step father. Thus began her roller coaster ride of jumping from foster home to foster home-not fitting in well with the family and not connecting to the foster parents. Her rages of anger often resulted in a placement to another foster care family. Samantha's screaming fits would become deal breakers for many of the foster parents. After eight placements, Samantha was placed into an EMQ FamiliesFirst foster care home at nine-years old. This is when she met her EMQ team that included a case manager, family specialist, intake coordinator and her dependable network of support, something she did not have before. The case manager began meeting with her weekly to discuss the problems she was having in school, relationships with her foster family, teachers, and other kids at school.

Samantha, a smart girl with a sense of humor that came through during her many meetings with various EMQ team members, expressed much anger towards her mom for abandoning her and allowing her abuse to take place. Through many hours of counseling and opening up to the EMQ team members, Samantha slowly increased her trust others and looked forward to a positive future. Her EMQ team worked together to identify the best guidance and therapy to help her control the anger and work through it constructively. Once she was engaged with her EMQ team, Samantha accepted the team's recommendations and took them to heart and began making progress to improve her behavior. She had the right attitude and wanted to make things better for herself but still needed support and guidance. For example, her screaming and yelling rages had to be controlled. The team told her that if she needed to release her anger, screaming was okay if she went outside to let it out and then came back in and not scream. Samantha did just that---she would go outside to scream when she was frustrated and then would collect herself and come back inside with a new calmness.

While a freshman in high school, Samantha found a group of friends at school who were active in a Christian church and invited her to come with them to Bible study group. As she became more involved with the church activities, she developed a friendship with the Parker family, who were active members of the church. The Parkers already had one grown daughter, a son two years older than Samantha, as well old twins 1 year younger than Samantha, a boy and girl who were adopted by the Parkers prior to Samantha meeting them. They encouraged her to study hard and excel in school. Eventually, Samantha shared this relationship with her EMQ team and expressed how she wanted to live with this family on a permanent basis. Her EMQ team proceeded work through the appropriate processes and procedures to get the Parkers qualified to become a EMQ foster family and then to have Samantha eventually live with them.

"Meeting my mom after joining her small group Bible study created an instant connection in my heart and once I met my Dad and experienced the love and caring that my brothers and sisters showed me, I was convinced that this was the family I was to be a part of," said Samantha. "They have provided me the security and comfort that I have been seeking for a very long time. I am proud to be their daughter and sister."

Three days before Samantha graduated from high school as student body president, valedictorian and prom queen, the Parkers request to adopt Samantha was approved. It was important to both Samantha and the Parkers that her high school diploma read, "Samantha Parker." She will be heading to a Christian college in Southern California a few weeks after her 18th birthday in August with many scholarships and grants that collectively will pay for her college education. Another chapter begins in Samantha's life with more positive energy and influences and many more happy occasions that all young adults look forward to.

"We are blessed that Samantha came into our lives and that we were able to give her what she was looking for-love, stability, nurturing and guidance," said Deanna and Steve Parker. "Not only are we proud of her achievements, but we can't wait to see what she does in the future because she's very special and we know great things will come from Samantha when she puts her mind to it."

"Samantha is exceptionally bright and has a great personality to match her wit," said EMQ case manager, Doug Martindale. "She deserves all the credit for making her future brighter and channeling the advice of the team to create positive outcomes for herself."

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Confidentiality of EMQ children and families has been preserved
through the use of models. Some stories may be composites of multiple cases.