I was confronted with a beanie weenie meal (plus some other weird things) last spring after a pre-Memorial day drive up to the moomincabin. A drive that culminated with SLEET, mind you. Sleet at the end of May? Really? Beanie weenies? For dinner? Really?

The outdoor temperature was in the 50s that day so the sleet was some sort of weird upper atmosphere phenomenon and the roads were not slippery thank you very much. But. Beanie Weenies? Those are little mini-cans of baked beans with sliced hot dogs in them. No thank you. My plan was to order either takeout pizza or something from Pickles and Pickles it was, whitefish baskets.

The book? Barbara Kingsolver’s latest, Demon Copperhead. The title sounded a bit like something Jeff Vandermeer might write, think Hummingbird Salamander, a great book BTW! I love Kingsolver and this book is not disappointing me. A trip through the more sordid parts of the foster child system.

To be clear, I have known some foster parents who took GOOD care of the children entrusted to them and even adopted. The kid in this book is not being treated well. The folks who take him on are desperately poor themselves and the $500 a month (in the book, not sure what people actually get paid and it probably varies) does not get directed in any way, shape, or form to the kid they are supposed to be fostering. Alas, I suspect this kind of thing happens more often than not.

I’m not sure I could ever have fostered children. It wasn’t a matter of money and believe me if I HAD fostered, the kids would’ve been treated well. Fed and clothed and cleaned and not relegated to sleep in a “dog room” or whatever. I just don’t think I could have handled any more than my own children. And I had a super supportive husband and several of those proverbial villages to help me.

I could pontificate more on this but I don’t have the words tonight.

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