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An Adoption Story
Posted by Janet Mendenhall on August 09, 2010 at 8:32 am
Prayer is powerful. So is a heart seeking the kingdom of God. When those two collide, God only knows what might happen. This is the story of such a collision. It is also a beautiful story of adoption.
A minister friend of mine realized one day in his quest to follow Jesus that something was lacking. Jesus was a friend of sinners; so much that he was accused of partying with the wrong crowd. My friend tried to recall the last time HE was accused of that. He immediately repented and prayed for a fuller Christ like reputation. His eyes were focused a little sharper. His ears were tuned a little finer. The gates of his heart were flung open a little wider. And it happened. New friends entered his life.
One such friend was a young woman struggling with addiction. This minister and his wife welcomed her into their lives and for a time ministered to her. Several years later, they received a call from her, now living in Arkansas. “Can you come get my baby? The sheriff is on my porch and I am going to jail.” Without hesitation, the couple left for Arkansas, knowing this would be a life-changing drive.
The baby was a one-year-old, dark-haired girl with big, brown eyes. “She came willingly to me without hesitation and immediately fell asleep. I will never forget that,” the minister’s wife said. They nourished and nurtured this little one for a year, and when her biological mother was released and seemed eager to start her life again, they returned her to her arms.
Within six months, things got rocky again for the young mother. And she knew she couldn’t care for the little one alone. The baby was again placed in the arms of the minister and his wife, this time with the promise that the mother would join them in a week. That week never came. Over the next few months the birth parents situation worsened and my friends sought legal custody and began thinking about adoption.
Having raised four sons, this couple was no stranger to the perils of parenting. The six months away from them had undone much of the teaching, structure and stability of their first year together. But raising four sons had instilled in them a dogged determination and an abundance of wisdom. That, coupled with the confidence it was God who had placed this young one in their lives, has sustained them. Those four sons, other family members and a host of friends have provided additional sustenance, eagerly welcoming this little one.
Next week, many of those family and friends will stand with Mom, Dad and little girl before the judge and hear him declare legally what many have known all along. She is theirs and she is home — forever.
This little princess is learning about kingdom life in a home where powerful prayers and hearts that seek God still regularly collide. And where God only knows what might happen.
Heroes
Posted by Taylor Engel on July 19, 2010 at 3:22 pm
Today Steve Jones, Christian Homes & Family Services Trustee, is guest blogging on his idea of heroes…we’re thankful for you, Steve!
It is very common for people to make heroes of professional athletes and entertainers. We also like to create heroes like Superman and Spiderman.
Occasionally events like natural disasters, terrorist attacks and national holidays occur that spotlight real heroes like firefighters, police officers, EMT’s and military personnel. A closer look can also reveal some of the quiet heroes like teachers and nurses.
My few years on the board of trustees of Christian Homes & Family Services have shown me a whole new group of quiet heroes. These heroes are often referred to as birth parents, adoptive parents, foster parents and employees of Christian Homes & Family Services.
A hero can be defined as one who puts the needs of others above his or her own, a remarkably brave person, somebody admired, or a person with superhuman powers.
What is more selfless than a birth parent’s decision to seek a loving, stable home for his or her baby? What could be more remarkably brave than committing your life to the care of an adopted child? Who could you admire more than someone who is willing to be a foster parent? I know CH&FS employees don’t have superhuman powers but their commitment to birthmothers and children is almost as amazing.
And just like Batman has Alfred, these heroes have wonderful families that love and support them and make their own sacrifices so that our heroes can go about the business of being remarkable, admired and practically superhuman. And finally, just as our heroes have wonderful families, this organization has wonderful donors and volunteers that quietly make a difference in the lives of children through their contribution of time and money.
If you are a birth parent, adoptive parent, foster parent, CH&FS employee or someone who supports the efforts of these individuals you can be assured that you are now on the top of my hero list and the hero list of the children whose lives and souls are touched by your loving sacrifices.
May God bless the heroes of children who truly need heroes.
Picnic Recap
Posted by Taylor Engel on July 07, 2010 at 7:55 am
Oh, what a day Saturday was! The bi-annual Adoption Picnic is what technically gathered us all together but what really drew us in was the promise of seeing old friends, celebrating the sweet gift of adoption, meeting and making new friends, and let’s be honest…12 flavors of homemade ice cream?? I’m just not sure it gets better than that! The rain held off beautifully (and miraculously?) and the children (and a few adults) enjoyed the crazy train rides by engineers Bob and Johnny, a bouncy house, a cool water slide and games and contests and prizes galore. Families traveled from near and far with the farthest hailing from Toledo Ohio!
One particular scene that touched my heart was watching Christian Homes & Family Services newest transitional foster family being reunited with the families of all three babies they loved on over the last year and a half. I asked their son if this would be an emotional day for his mom and he said, “No, I think she is as happy as she could be right now.” We considered ourselves blessed for being able to stand back and watch such a precious reunion.
Another special highlight was catching up with one of the oldest adoptees present at the picnic along with his parents, his wife and two of their three daughters. Thirty-three years ago, this young man was placed in a loving home and one of the things that is so unique about Christian Homes is that Nancy Miller, President Emeritus, was on staff then too.
And can you believe that there was a young lady present who has attended every single adoption picnic since she was adopted 22 years ago? I know that the staff of Christian Homes who have worked here for 20 plus years love that they’ve watched this young woman grow up!
For those of you who were unable to attend the picnic, we certainly missed you and hope you make plans to attend the next one in the summer of 2012. As we parted ways Saturday afternoon I think we all thought, “Why don’t we do this every weekend?” It was truly a sweet day. All the more reason to look forward to Christian Homes & Family Services 50th anniversary and Adoption Picnic in 2012!
Mothering Sunday
Posted by Janet Mendenhall on May 03, 2010 at 11:51 am
The act of honoring motherhood is as old as time itself. Official celebrations are almost as ancient.
The ever-partying Greeks and Romans celebrated in springtime, with festivals honoring Rhea and Cybele, the mother of their gods.
The early Christians, perhaps not as festively, celebrated in springtime, a day to honor Mary, the mother of God.
The Europeans first officially honored the “Mother Church” on the fourth Sunday of Lent, but it was later broadened to include actual mortal mothers, and became known as Mothering Sunday. Servants and laborers were given the day to return to their homes and visit their mothers — and granted a reprieve from the fasting of Lent to enjoy a family feast. (Can you imagine at last going home to mom’s cooking and having to fast?)
Mothering Sunday was abandoned by the early American settlers, perhaps, historians say, because there simply wasn’t time. It could also have been a reflection of the Puritans’ general distaste for festivities.
The day was resurrected in the heart of Julia Ward Howe, broken by the devastation of the Civil War. Her proposition was a national celebration of peace and motherhood, appealing to the power of each mother’s love to bind together and overcome the futility of their sons’ deaths. She wrote in 1870, “We women of one country will be too tender to those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure them.”
Her dream wasn’t immediately successful, but as time marched on, it resurfaced and was reshaped. Eventually, in 1914, Woodrow Wilson signed Mother’s Day into national observance on the second Sunday of each May.
I like the Europeans’ name, Mothering Sunday. It honors the essence of mothering that exists not only in mothers, but in many women whom the actual title “mother” has eluded: unconditional love, real comfort, wise instruction and peace.
I like Howe’s connection of peace and mothering. Peace is found in the mother’s presence — her lap, under her arm, or at her side. God’s writers often use this imagery to remind us of His love for His people. I like this picture in Isaiah 66, “I will extend peace to her like a river…you will nurse and be carried on her arm and dandled on her knees. As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you…”
I like Christian Homes’ connection of peace and mothering: Birth mothers being mothered into peace by their mothers and caseworkers and adoptive mothers; adoptive mothers being mothered into peace by their mothers and caseworkers and birth mothers.
And all of us experiencing the perfect peace of the One Isaiah says nurtures and comforts and loves us — just like our mothers have.
Happy Mothering Sunday. May the peace of God be with you.
Family
Posted by Steve Holt on April 19, 2010 at 9:53 am
A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families, he leads forth prisoners with singing… (Ps. 68:4-6)
How many adjectives can you pin on “family”? Here are a few I thought of: Nice, safe, fun, quirky, crazy, demanding, single, imperfect, blessed, dysfunctional, functional, irreplaceable, laid-back, active, forgiving, multi-generational, rich, poor, middle-class…
I am thankful to have grown up in a wonderful, wild and wacky family. It was wonderful in too many ways to mention here. It was wild because all 8 of us had minds of our own, and things sometimes got a little out of hand. And it was wacky! In fact, it was so wacky that when the remaining members of my family get together now, we mostly tell funny stories of the wacky things that happened in our family. Like the year our family visited Colorado and my dad let my 16-year old brother drive the entire family up Pikes Peak on the first weekend the road up was open after the winter. Snow all over the road, and the closer we got to the summit, the worse the visibility. My mother sat in the back seat with her arms wrapped around her two youngest yelling at my brother, “Don’t look! Don’t look!”…meaning I suppose, don’t take your eyes off the road to take in the wondrous sights below. But how wacky is it to tell the driver not to look!
What was your family like growing up? I hope it was mostly positive. And even if your experience was less than positive, God’s original plan for families was a great idea. Marriage and family were the first social institutions, existing long before tribes, clans and nations…long before a “chosen people,” and much longer than the church. In fact, notice how virtually every social enterprise since the first family attempts to pattern itself to some degree after the family concept. God intended families to be safe havens in which family members grow to fullness in every way.
Psalm 68:4-6 testifies to God’s desire for families to be the safe place for all: the fit and the fragile. His household will care for orphans, widows and “the lonely.” In fact, notice that he himself sets the lonely in families. The family is the launching pad for human beings.
Family is God’s idea, and Christian Homes & Family Services puts families together. We place babies and children in loving Christian homes. We connect birth mothers with adoptive parents who will care for her like family long after her delivery. We send adoptive couples imprisoned by years of infertility home singing.
I’m glad to work for a ministry that does the work of God every day.
Foster Care
Posted by Janet Mendenhall on March 22, 2010 at 9:16 am
Nurturing. Cultivating. Cherishing. Fostering. Powerful words for a powerful task.
A task that Christian Homes & Family Services is passionate about and hopes you will be too. A joy that Christian Homes delights in and hopes that you will, too. A blessing that Christian Homes has witnessed and hopes that you will, too.
Christian Homes is most commonly referred to simply as an adoption agency. But did you know that we are also a foster care agency? Did you know that there are three different types of foster care provided by loving couples through Christian Homes?
Transitional care is provided by couples willing to care short-term for our newborn babies until all the arrangements and legal issues are settled for the adoptive parents to take that little one home. These couples are standing in the gap, loving and watching and remembering in order to offer the smoothest transition when the time comes for their precious visitor to go home with Mom and Dad. The timing of the love and care these foster parents give is crucial.
We work with Child Protective Services to provide foster care for children and infants who are in need of temporary homes as the caseworkers attempt to resolve issues in the biological family that do not allow them to remain together at the moment. The long term goal for these placements is to be reunited with their biological family when things are better. Stability and love while they wait are indispensable. Like transitional care, this is temporary in nature, but the placement time can vary anywhere from days to two or more years.
One of our newer programs is the Foster – to – Adopt program. This also is a joint effort with Child Protective Services. These babies and children no longer have a permanent plan for reunification with their biological families. The parental rights may or may not have been terminated at this point. The goal of this long term commitment is to be fostered by this family only until rights are terminated and the process of adoption is completed joining this one-time foster family — forever.
God’s call to love and care for His children is clear — especially ones in need of parents, whether permanent or temporary. Can you stand in the gap? Can you be a forever family? Can you hold up the arms of those who do with encouragement, respite care, babysitting, tutoring? The task is before us, and it is powerful. But just as powerful are the joy and the blessings that await you.
Each of these opportunities to nurture and cultivate and cherish and yes, foster are available to you wherever you are. However, Christian Homes at this time can only work directly with you if you live in the general area of Tyler or Abilene, Texas.
Look for more information on becoming a foster parent with Christian Homes and how to contact us by clicking here.
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