Book Description

In the 1960s, the untimely death of a mother and the inability of a young father to care for his daughter and her two siblings propel a little girl into foster care. While hers is a singular tale of growing up with loss and uncertainty, and in a handful of disparate homes, this young girl's experiences connect her to thousands of others who still endure the loneliness and disappointment that come with being in the child welfare system.Even during a young life filled with frequent uprooting, including life in a shelter, she discovers an inner resilience to sustain her quest for a "home," learns to lean on the protection and love of her sister, and experiences the meaning of family. She survived. She endured. She overcame. Today that young girl is businesswoman in the non-profit and philanthropic sectors.Here is the story of how one little girl who lost her "home" now uses her voice as a national advocate for more compassionate and kinship care services so that over 500,000 children who are now in the system can reclaim their voices and thrive. Child welfare expert, provider of child welfare services in the non-profit realm, and philanthropist Sharon (Toliver-maiden name) McDaniel knows well the life of these children and youth in foster care. She was one of them. With a mother who died when (Toliver) McDaniel was just two and a father who was too young and inexperienced to properly care for her and her two siblings, she wound up in the child welfare system at the age of six until she was 17 when she graduated from high school and aged out of the system.Her memoir is a journey of her travels through other people's homes and being splintered from her siblings. She endures family loss, a life of instability, and intense loneliness and hunger, as well as the complexities of emancipation. But in the end, her inner resilience, a network of caring families, and education supported the pursuit of her life's work-advocating for kinship care as a primary placement option to foster care.