**A HUGE shout out to my big sister, Kelly (pictured above with her hubby and 6 kids), over at www.ordinaryheroblog.blogspot.com She completes more projects to HELP others in ONE day than I'll probably ever do in my entire LIFE!! BUT..the biggest project she (and Ordinary Hero) has EVER taken on is the RESTORE NASHVILLE...where they are restoring homes that were devastated by the flood!! She "accidentally" met Ms. Clemmie during one of her visits to inner city Nashville..and well...the rest is history...Ms. Clemmie has devoted her life to helping INNER CITY TEENS..and now she NEEDS help for her own Momma...Her Momma is BLIND and her Momma's house is falling in..literally...on top of her....You can watch the video below where my sister explains HOW FAR THEY'VE come and HOW MUCH MORE they still need to finish this ONE HOUSE.... It is truly an amazing story and an amazing video...If you feel led to help...all the info is on the video...ENJOY:
And, SIGN UP TO FOLLOW ORDINARY HERO, cause they are leaving for Ethiopia next week...and they are determined to change the life of these orphaned children...one child at a time!! I know they are coming back with LOTS of pics of children that NEED FAMILIES!!!!
And...thank you for ALL your input and help from my last post....It certainly gives me a lot to read about and think about...I can't wait to see where God leads our family so we too can make a difference in the life of a child in Foster Care...even if it is only for a moment in time!!! Happy Friday to you all, kj
Would love to watch the video, got it as an email as well but it wont let me since there is sony music content in it and it isnt available in other countries :( Is there a version w/o music?
ReplyDeletePraying for a safe travel for their team!
LOVE THIS!!!
ReplyDeleteWanted to comment on the last post as well. Jason and I adopted 6 of our 8 children through foster care.
It opens your eyes not just to the children, but to a broken government trying to help, and the biological family as well that is trying to mend. I think the great part is that all children (no matter who they are) want is a safe place, a family who loves them. I can tell you that yes there is brokeness, but not any different than children who are adopted at birth or overseas, or adopted at age 15.....sometimes the situation is tougher than others, some bond quickly- others don't, some have a lot of baggage, some don't.
Our children were all 3 and under when they came to us, and we adopted 3 of our children 3 YEARS LATER! Is it hard- YOU BET! Was it worth all the heart ache, pain, nasty system stuff we put up with- IN A HEARTBEAT!
I would say you learn a lot about yourself when you do foster care because you have to love beyond any boundaries. That biological family may be hard to love when they "keep messing up", or say things that hurt the child, or say rude things to you. It pushed me beyond myself in so many ways- to realize this person is a child of God as well. There are sooo many reasons children are in care. Mostly because of a cycle that they were caught in as a child.
I believe we do close our eyes and try not to look because - you are completely invaded with social workers, judges, CASA workers, and visits with the biological family every week. It takes time, effort, and you are NOT thanked (unless you get a great social worker, or if you build a very positive relationship with the bio family which we did.)
Our philosophy was always- the state took your children away- we will do our best to love on them until.......whenever.
It is NOT true that you can not foster or adopt transracially - OBVIOUSLY he he he. Of course that doesn't stop some social workers, or in our case a CASA worker having issues with it. There is a law that states that it is illegal to discriminate on this basis.
We also agreed to never take in any child we would not be willing to adopt - if that would happen.....and 6 children later...he he he.....
We have NEVER treated any foster child differently than any other child in our home- THIS IS WHAT IS NEEDED!!!!! We went to great lengths to make sure our children knew that we cared about their bio fam. In fact we still send pics and letters even though their rights were completely terminated. It is just our way of telling our children we LOVE THEM completely. Of course our situations were safe enough to do that. Some are NOT!
I would totally love to talk about this even more...if you have questions- let me know :) I think Jason and I totally laugh about the fact that we could totally write a book on it. :)