To give this character a sense of reality for the story, I contacted several friends who work with Child Protective Services, Teen Agencies, Drug Enforcement, Office of Public Assistance, and Suicide Prevention and asked questions.
Some answered with mandates written in the law, some referred to their cases, and all spoke from their heart because it is a meaningful topic to them. I bounced off my ideas to insure accuracy in my scene.
With this information in hand I wrote several scenes for Janey and showed them to a beta reader. The person lifted her eyes after finishing the scene and smiled. She pointed out portions she especially enjoyed. The one thing she didn't discuss was the technical foster care points finely threaded into the scenes, and that made me happy.
I love watching Olympic ice skating competitions. The performances, even with flaws are magnificent. The networks provide an expert to commentate during each performance and then review anything significant with video footage. As he/she discusses the perfected skills mastered by the skater, I am amazed because I would not have noticed those points had the commentator not told me. The performance appeared simple, elegant, breathtaking, superior, and stunning.
I honestly don't know enough about the finer parts of skating to judge if a skater went high enough, held their leg or arm at the exact angle required, etc., but I can distinguish between a superior performance and one that skirted requirements. The result always shows in the flow.
As Christians we have a Teacher, His Word, His encouragement, and his strength to use in situations. We can choose to practice, perfect, access, and apply these tools to have a continuing perfected walk. When we do, we won't have to worry about not having the right words to say or doing the right thing when sharing God's love. Others will simply come to us and ask.
Friend, How have you perfected the technical points?
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