family did not feed or give her any attention, eventually
causing her to “give up on crying”.
Nadine Marsh-Carter’s adoption agency works
closely with abused and neglected children who filter
through the Department of Social Services. She attests
to the consequences of child abuse or neglect on the
future home status of a child, whether or not a family is
willing to take them in.
The Children’s Home Society of Virginia works
with nearby counties that take children out of abusive
homes. If the locality is unsuccessful in returning the
child home, the child will become a ward of the state.
The adoption agency helps children who have faced
potential hardships as a result of failures within the
social service and foster care systems, as well as those
who are 18 and aging out of the system.
Marsh-Carter describes many children brought in to
the Children’s Home Society agency as young boys and
girls who “have emotional or psychological scarring as a
result of the abuse that led them to be in the system for
so long.” The psychological effects of abuse or neglect
on the children cause them to be undesirable to many
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