Letter from Tatiana, former foster youth and previous Felix Intern:​When I was fifteen years old, I was placed in foster care. The years before I aged out of foster care were tumultuous. Unlike many youths in foster care, my siblings and I were not separated from one another...and we did not move around often. Even so, we experienced a lot of difficulties and the worst time of year for my siblings and I was usually during the holidays. It was the time of year that served as the biggest reminder that we no longer really had parents, at least not in the traditional sense. We suffered something that most children in foster care experience: being forgotten. It was extremely disheartening to watch my foster parent dote on her own children and forget we existed. And while she sometimes got our younger brother a few gifts, my sister and I were often left unacknowledged. This was the story of the holidays for us over and over again until one year, we received gift cards from our foster care agency. The first time we received them, we were really surprised and grateful because those gift cards gave us the chance to treat ourselves to something that we wanted. Receiving a gift card soothed the sting that comes with not being able to spend the holiday with family and opening gifts on Christmas morning like other kids. As the years went on, we actually looked forward to the holiday season rather than dreading it. Even though we still didn’t get presents from our foster family, we always got something from our agency. It was a symbol that someone out there remembered us, that someone cared.