I thought I stumbled into this work. Looking back, nobody does.
I was born and raised in Tuscumbia. It’s a small town, and I grew up there with my mom and my brother. My grandma helped a lot. I went to school there, graduated there, and then headed to MU to get my degree.
I wanted out so bad when I was in high school. I went. I spent a summer in Canada. I lived in Texas. I taught second grade. I was gone.
My mom needed me. My grandma got sick and my dad passed away, and I was the one who could come back. So I did. I took care of her, and eventually I ended up at Children’s Division.
That was never the plan.
But looking back, the signs were everywhere.
My best friend from second grade ended up in the system and bounced around our community for a while. One of the homes he stayed in was ours. A family member aged out of foster care and is doing great now. People close to me adopted. Others fostered. I watched what it looked like from the inside, from the outside, and from the middle.
I was just always around it.
Now I’m the only caseworker in this office who’s been here since before the pandemic. Everybody else has come and gone. I’ve had anywhere from 15 cases to 34 at one time. One family might be ready for reunification. Another might be working toward adoption. Another is just starting visitations. You’re switching gears constantly.
It’s a lot. I understand why people leave.
But for me it’s more than a job.
I want your kids to be happy. I want them to be safe. And I want you to get there too. The first four weeks I’m just building a relationship. I’m not pushy, but I’m there. If you want to work hard, I will work hard right beside you.
Some of the hardest cases are the ones I recognize. Families I went to school with. Situations that look like ones I saw as a kid. The generational cycle is real. Those are the cases where I push a little harder. Because if we can stop it now, maybe the next set doesn’t happen.
I’ve had to ask myself sometimes, am I holding this parent back? Am I so fixed on how I think this should go that I’m not letting them find their own way out? I’ve loosened the reins on cases and watched people blossom. That’s not something you can put in a file.
I love it when parents find each other. When somebody who’s been through it can sit down with somebody who’s just starting and say, I’ve been where you are. That kind of connection does something I can’t do from where I stand.
We’re all just human beings. I have family members who’ve struggled with the same things I see in my cases. I’ve been in situations where I didn’t know where I was going to live or how I was going to figure it out. I just kept going and used the resources I had. That’s all I’m asking anybody else to do.
I cry on the way home sometimes. I have a cat who knows more than she should. But I come back the next day.
I have a kid I’ve been working with who’s aging out. His family has been in the system for generations. And he’s leaving saying he’s going to school, he’s got plans, and if his brothers and sisters ever need him, he’ll be there.
And the cycle starts to break.
Your story might be in a hard chapter right now. But a couple chapters down, it’s going to look completely different.
Heather Lovell, Children’s Division Case Manager
Voices of Hope
Every person in this community carries a story worth telling. Voices of Hope features the real people of the Missouri Ozarks who show up for children and families — foster parents, caseworkers, volunteers, survivors, and neighbors who simply refused to look away.
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