Life Unexpected
27 Jan
Another foster parent suggested I check out a new show airing on Monday nights on the CW. I missed it live, but was able to catch the pilot on cw.com. It’s a show called Life Unexpected, about a 15-year-old girl named Lux who has floated through seven different foster homes without ever achieving the holy grail of the foster care system: permanency.
The show picks up a few days before Lux’s 16th birthday, as she meets her birth parents for the first time in an attempt to seek emancipation from the foster care system. (Somehow they never actually signed away their rights permanently some 15 years ago, but let’s suspend belief on that part for a few minutes.)
The judge at the emancipation hearing essentially tells her to try to make things work with her birth parents now that they are back in her life, given that she has no source of income or permanent housing. It’s all a bit far-fetched, but yet somehow I found myself sucked into the story pretty quickly. In fact… I might even admit to shedding a few tears over the whole thing. (Anyone who knows me, knows how much foster kids can pull at my heart-strings.)
Although the whole “get-back-with-your-birth-parents-15-years-later” story is out there, the fact is there are tons of teenage kids caught in the foster care system without any real sense of permanency. Aside from being entertaining, I hope this show can help shed some light on the need for families for these kids. In the meantime, I will be tuning in each Monday night to see how things turn out for Lux.
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