West Virginia officials are desperate to recruit more foster families. Experts say this is due in large part to the opioid crisis, as more children are being removed from their homes because of parental substance abuse and neglect.
Over the previous 24 hours, the agency had received several referrals, including one involving a 7-year-old girl. After her parents overdosed, May said, the little girl walked barefoot through the snow to a gas station and asked for help. A second case involved three siblings under the age of 11 who were removed from their home a second time because of their parents' substance abuse.
"We really need people who are committed" to becoming foster or adoptive parents, she added."We are raising the next generation."Although the need for foster families remains acute, thousands of families in the state have stepped in to help, many of them driven by their personal experiences, their desire to serve their community, or both.
The children, who spent more than a year and a half in foster care, didn't know what it was like to have their own things, and they knew that the few things they did have could be taken at a moment's notice. They watched, too, as the drug crisis changed their community. Kanawha County, home to Charleston, the state's capital, and where Nikki grew up, has for several years led the state in drug overdose deaths — second only to nearby Cabell County.
In 2014, the Snuffers learned that the children had a new biological sister, Harlow, who was exposed to opioids in utero and born with a serious heart condition. By that time, they had started mentoring another foster child, Michael, who had also been removed from his home because of substance abuse.
"She looked horrible," he said."It was bad. It's upsetting that you could let that happen to somebody. She's a human being like everybody else."Louisa and Nikki ended up adopting eight children, including the original five siblings, and Michael, Harlow and Michael's 4-year-old half-sister Brynn, who arrived in 2015. She was also born dependent on opioids, including heroin and Suboxone, a medication used to treat opioid addiction.
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