Mitzi Buchanan shares a moment with Cerenity on adoption day. (Submitted)
Fred Rogers, the man known to generations as Mr. Rogers of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, famously said, “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’”
Who are the helpers in our community? Where can we find them? How can we each be a helper in our own way?
Mitzi Buchanan and her husband Travis trained to be foster parents as the first step to adopting their daughter Cerenity, a “family placement.”
“I’ve always been close to children in the family and helped out,” Mitzi Buchanan said. “We got our license to care for and adopt Cerenity.”
The couple had no intention of continuing to foster children in their home after adopting the child who was already a member of her extended family and who has a traumatic brain injury. That was in October 2021.
Then the call came from the Mitchell County Department of Social Services. Would Mitzi and Travis consider a respite placement for a special needs child?
“I said, ‘Yeah, that’s fine. We can do this,” Mitzi Buchanan said.
Then she saw him in the hospital. He was three months old and very fragile.
“That’s when I said, ‘We’ll try,’” she added. “We had him for nine months. We still remain close to him and his birth family. He’s my sweetheart.”
Mitzi Buchanan proudly shares that her “sweetheart” turned two in May. The Family Tree Travis gave her includes all nine foster kids who have shared their home right next to the rest of their family, including her four children.
That first placement was a shared parenting situation.
“I didn’t know his mom and dad when we got him,” Mitzi Buchanan said. “You’ve just got to respect the other parents. That’s how we all became a family. They
trust us enough to ask us to be his godparents. Now they’re not just his family, they’re our family.”
Because Mitzi Buchanan trained for Cerenity’s special needs, the calls kept coming from DSS. There is a need for all kinds of foster parents in Mitchell County and across North Carolina, especially those like Mitzi with experience with special needs children.
“They just never say no,” said Shawn Block, Program Manager for Community Services at Mitchell County Department of Social Services.
“We’ve always had a good relationship with DSS,” Mitzi Buchanan said. “I’ve worked with pretty much every caseworker there and with Shawn. I’ve never had problems with anyone. Communications can sometimes be challenging.
“I believe in communications. You just keep communicating. It works with DSS and it works with the kids.”
“It just don’t [sic] work on 3-year-olds too well, though,” she added after a pause.
The children of Mitchell County and their families can always use more helpers. For information about how to help as a foster parent in Mitchell County, contact Donna Davis, foster care licensing and adoptions social worker, at 537-1664 or Donna.Davis@mitchellcounty.org.
Alternatively, those interested can contact Shawn Block, program manager for community services with the Mitchell County Department of Social Services, at 537-1652 or Shawn.block@mitchellcounty.org.