Grace and Grit

Goodbye to a place I once called hom e Now to a new strangers place, to learn Learn how to live on my own Yet I yearned for just a stable home I had never felt so alone Accompanied by two new black garbage bags With a couple rags, and old memories Goodbye to my friends with just These two black garbage bags and some accessories " It'll be ok," my caseworker assured  As I was lured into the system Swallowed by the courts Consumed by the placements Goodbye to a place I once called my home. -  by AHTIYA As some of you may know, last year we began the process of becoming trained and cleared to house transitional youth. These are young adults who have “aged out” of foster care, who are currently experiencing homelessness. This is a group that both Josh and I have felt a call to serve and partner with for a long time. It must be so scary and lonely to turn 18 and be forced to survive in a world that offers little to no support system. I am excite...

Confession: This post has been sitting as a draft for almost six months because I haven't had the emotional energy to dwell on this subject (goodbyes). Although I've known I wanted to tackle it for some time, I also wanted to write it from a peaceful frame of mind and it's taken awhile to get there. With the recent passing of The Sheepfold's founder, Fran Lundquist, I have been spending more time thinking of the thousands of women who must have walked through The Sheepfold's doors over the past 30+ years. Just in my short time working here I have known, loved, guided, served, and been blessed by at least 30 women and 50+ children. Some stayed just a few weeks, others months, and some even a year. That's just at my house, not including the hundreds of women I've met at the Sheepfold's other shelter houses and alumni gatherings. As I have written here before, domestic violence does not effect one demographic more than another. We have young women and ol...

So I got a bit behind with posting last month, but better late than never right? :-) Here is another story of one of our moms from Christmas past. Natasha* came to the Sheepfold about a week before Christmas. Right in the middle of the office staff's busiest season! We were the only one of the Sheepfold's shelters that had an opening so Natasha was placed with us. She and her two children had been homeless for almost 1.5 years in the LA area, spending the seasons in and out of temporary shelters. Her son was 7 and her daughter not quite 2. Natasha had worked full-time in a warehouse until her daughter was born. After that, childcare was no longer affordable when combined with her other living expenses and after trying to make ends meet for several months they were finally evicted and spent their days on the streets. When Natasha and her children arrived at the shelter we showed them their room and let them get settled. Her son was wearing only a t-shirt, old sweat ...

Last year I shared my first impressions of a Sheepfold Christmas. If you haven't read that post you can read it here . This Christmas was a little less chaotic because my house wasn't quite as full, but it was every bit as precious as last year. Rather than share my experiences I thought I'd let you read one of our moms' thoughts on Christmas at the Sheepfold. But first, a little bit of background on this mom. :-) Last Christmas our mom (who I will call Beth*) was homeless and staying at an emergency shelter. Emergency shelters are short-term, usually co-ed places where you can sleep, take a shower, and have a hot meal. If you've seen the film The Pursuit of Happynes s it is the kind of shelter where you have to wait in line hoping they'll have a bed for you each night. They can be scary places for someone like Beth with two children under the age of 4. She was hopeful however that this would be a blessed first Christmas for her little ones. The shelter she w...