DW was a young girl when she was removed from her mother’s home. Although she was adopted, she and her brother were later removed from the adoptive home while a younger sibling remained. She then spent much of high school in an unstable foster home before landing in the home of a loving and stable foster parent her senior year.

I first met Sara when she was sent to a 30-day evaluation center. Our first meeting surprised me. She was smart, well-spoken, and had a big goal: to become a dentist. She didn’t know what having a lawyer meant, but that she was happy to have some-one to talk to. From that point on, over a period of many months, Sara and I slowly built a trusting relationship. Whenever we were in court, it didn’t matter if I agreed with what she wanted, Sara knew that I would relate those desires to the judge.

When Aiden was 10 years old, he was brought into the child protection system because the police learned his mother had physically abused his younger brother. Aiden is now happily and permanently living with his brother, stepfather, his stepfather’s wife, and their children.