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...

It has been just over 3 years since my last post here. During this perceived hiatus I had begun writing 4 separate reflections that I just could not seem to finish. They were titled: Forgiveness, Plans Preparation & Purpose, The One About Compassion, and First Steps. I attributed the delay to busyness, lack of motivation, and writer's block, but I don't think those things were actually the cause. I have been going through an emotional and spiritual valley recently. What I mean by valley is that God had orchestrated certain circumstances, relationships, and experiences in my life to come together in a way that brought me to a low or difficult place. I have experienced valleys in my life before and they were always times when God felt far away and I was questioning His goodness and purpose for me as well as resisting the growth He was trying to bring about in my relationship with Him. However painful or difficult these valleys of the past were, I learned from experience ...

'Twas the night before Christmas... and they were praying for YOU. My Christmas Eve is just coming to a close. It's been one busy day trying to balance time between the shelter and family, but it has been a fantastic day full of tradition, joy, and reflection. At the shelter this evening we attended a candlelight Christmas Eve service. I had never been to one at this church before. For those of you that don't know I recently transferred to another shelter location (still with The Sheepfold but now a different city). I have been adjusting to all the changes and now feel settled into this new home. The service was beautiful and rich with meaning as we reflected on the significance of the best gift we could ever receive, Jesus. It is especially intriguing for our moms to think of God choosing to enter the world as a baby...who had a mother who changed His diapers, watched Him learn to walk, talk, and introduced Him to the world that He created. After church we came ho...

Ironically, a couple weeks after my last post " Goodbyes ," I experienced my most difficult goodbye yet. The grief knocked me off my feet and onto my knees crying out to God. My heart is still aching from it. Sometimes the process of letting go and allowing God to mend a broken heart can take awhile...especially because I have a tendency to work over the past in my mind as if I can change history. Silly Me. I don't really feel like relaying the events of the last goodbye. Maybe at a later date it will come up, but not yet. Forgive me? In the mean time I am re-reading my last post because I need the reminder that God is the mender of all things broken. A little while ago two of our moms made us a beautiful scrapbook that they filled with pictures of them and their children as well as notes of things they were grateful for. It is so precious to each of my fellow house managers, especially after an emotionally difficult week. I am going to share with you one of the note...

WARNING: This post is for my Christian readers. You may be offended, angered, sobered, convicted, or indifferent. My hope is that, whatever your initial reaction, you will see yourself for what you are and what you would be if not for the grace of God (and by you I mean WE). Specks of dirt, beautiful wretches, and scandalous grace. One day a young woman entered a church... Sounds like the beginning of a bad joke doesn't it? Let's call her Grace... Grace had a lot of baggage. In her 30-ish years of life she had already experienced more pain, loss, abuse, and numbness than she knew what to do with. Her abuse began when she was a young child at the hands of her father, uncle, and brother. Each of them were responsible for stripping away her innocence, dignity, and hope. After years of unimaginable torment that became her daily reality she met a man. This man was better than any of the men she had ever known or loved. He could take her away ...

Today marks the anniversary of Grace and Grit's first blog post ( you can read it here ). In some ways it is hard for me to accept a year has passed already, but in other ways I feel like I've been a shelter house manager for years. My desire to be here is just as strong, if not stronger, than it was a year ago today! A few of you have asked me how I feel about my job, "now that the shine has worn off." Well, there have been days when I've come home and needed to be alone to process an experience or to come to terms with a mom's choice that I thought was wrong. There are days I've had my plans thrown out the window because someone had a crises of some kind (ER visits, moms in labor, emotional breakdowns, new moms arriving, families leaving unexpectedly, court appearances, bike's and wallets being stolen, kids going missing, earthquakes, power outages, etc, etc, etc). There have been days I've cried, I've felt my heart break, I've bee...

One of our moms decided to write down her thoughts and experiences since coming to The Sheepfold. I thought I would share with you what she had to say. This is in her own words. English is not her first language, so please be understanding of grammar and punctuation. (The following is used with permission. All names and indentifying information have been removed.) ********************************************* Being @ the Sheepfold The Sheepfold is a big blessing from GOD. When I and my daughter first came in here we were welcomed with true love. I remember when (House Manager) showed me my room. There was a small bag with lotion, body spray, and a welcome card that made me cry that there's good people in the world and it's not just on T.V. or movies. I've been going through a lot of emotional stress because of my big fear of the court dates. Every one of the house managers were ready to leave everything they are doing just to give me the time and hear me out. ...