So we’ve had this dream. A dream that was only discussed on long road trips or occasional date nights. We didn’t tell anyone our dream for fear that if too many people knew, it would force us to do something to make it become a reality. And that would be impossible. There were too many risks, too many unknowns. We were too fearful, too inexperienced and too busy to try and make our dream come to life. So many toos. The dream stayed hidden in our hearts for a couple of years. Kept tucked away so that failure would never happen because we would never even try.
However, this dream nagged and nagged. It kept us awake at night, dominated our conversations and tugged at our hearts. Something had to be done.
When a child is taken into custody with Child Protective Services, the intent for that child is to transition immediately into a foster home. However, there are far too many children needing homes and not nearly enough foster homes to take them. The result is children and infants sitting in office buildings for days and sometimes weeks while they are waiting. Scared and confused children removed from their home only to be taken to an office building for sometimes days on end. Separated from their friends and school, family, and everything that they know as normal. Birthdays are missed, holidays are passed over, and everything the child knew is gone.
This reality is sickening. We as a society have failed them. In an effort to keep the children protected and safe, we have made them feel isolated and unwanted. The worst part of all this is the infants. Some of them born just days prior only to go straight to an office building. Infants that deserved to be rocked, held and loved on, not sitting in carseats waiting to be “placed”.
We dreamed of one day owning a house (separate from our own), staffing it, and filling it with infants waiting to be placed. No more office buildings, no more sitting in carseats. These babies could be loved and cared for in a home while they are awaiting their future foster family. An emergency shelter house for infants. A temporary safe house.
We started small. We shared our dream with our foster care agency. They were completely supportive and willing to help. We made a few phone calls to the people in charge and had a few encouraging meetings. The need was there, we just had to figure out a way to make it happen. We started small, one baby at a time in our house. The babies have come fast and left even quicker. We have loved every second of doing emergency shelter. It has confirmed our dream and made us think that this could actually become a reality someday. We’ve had more meetings and made more phone calls. Small, tiny steps towards a huge, scary dream. Our hope is to have our non profit status soon and for fundraising to begin shortly after. We are scared. The fear of failure is real and almost paralyzing at times. We realize that this could take years to happen. But we move forward. Step by itty bitty step. Our dream is no longer a secret. As scary as it is to share it publicly, we know that we can one day look back and say we tried.
Stayed tuned for fundraising opportunities and ways that YOU can help a foster child!