Making an Impact in Foster Care - UPDATE

Last year we reported a story on Jeffrey, who was 12 years old when Chris Pham began working with him through Children’s Law Center of Minnesota. Chris had maintained the relationship with this young man, including when Jeffrey was moved to Washington to live with his older sister, only to be told that her family decided to no longer adopt him. Chris stayed in contact with Jeffrey when he was placed in outstate Minnesota, Iowa and many other places over the past nine years. But due, in part, to Chris’s consistency in his life, Jeffrey has become a successful young man. He is currently in the military and stationed in Texas, where he is learning to be a helicopter mechanic and pilot.

Chris recently received an unsolicited email from Jeffrey’s sister, which once again shows the power of giving back. We just never know how our work touches and changes lives:

This is completely random, but I came across your page on a story of someone I know. You probably won’t remember me, but we met in either 2010 or 2011 when I was 10 years old. My memory of that time has since been pushed back into the depths of my mind, but you were one of the attorneys I met while my younger brother was in the process of being removed from the home. I just wanted to say that I’ve always remembered your name and who you are because of how you treated me. I had never met an attorney or anything like that before meeting you and I just need to thank you for treating me like a human and not just a name in the case. It was a horribly traumatic time in my life, but I will never forget your patience and kindness.