Oregon Community Programs - OCP

2:13 AM: The house is quiet except for barely audible, muffled crying.

Just loud enough to wake Shirley, who has learned over the years to sleep lightly. She sits up, listening. Within seconds, she knows this is going to be one of the hard nights.

She finds her a few moments later, tangled in blankets, breathing fast, somewhere between asleep and awake. Sometimes it’s a night terror. Sometimes it’s not. Either way, her body is telling a story her words can’t.

Shirley kneels beside the bed, not too close. “You’re okay,” she says softly. “You’re safe.”

What happens next is the quiet, unseen work of foster care. The kind that happens in the middle of the night, over and over again. And over time, those moments begin to add up. The crying softens. Sleep comes easier. Trust starts to take root. It’s slow, but it’s real. And it’s how healing begins.

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