SEEING TRANSFORMATION

I can remember sitting with the board on the early years of La Casa as we were trying to determine direction. We sat listening to many of the teenagers answer one question: “What is your heart’s desire?” And you know what was the answer we heard over and over? “We want to know our family.” Many told stories of being pulled away from family with no chance to say goodbye. Others told stories of their families leaving them behind in search of safety. But over and over, the resounding answer was to be able at least see their family.

That set our minds into asking ourselves if we even knew much about each child’s family and their story. Yes, we had accepted the children into our home and read their files. But we asked, “Do we really know their stories?”

That was the beginning of our family program. Searching for family, getting to know their stories, evaluating what it would take for reconnection and even maybe reunification was possible. There was no magic wand, no magic timeline, no magic anything when working with brokenness, but we have seen the hand of God in miraculous ways healing families.

Those on the very front line of our family program are our social workers. They do the hard work of searching for family, building relationships and trust, writing all of the reports to different courts, and intentionally planning for connect times. Their schedules are full, but so are their hearts to see transformation.

We don’t always got to see the fruit of seeds planted, but this year has been a very special year. This month, we have had one adolescent reunite with his biological families. We have seen one of our adolescents adopted by her houseparents. We have two other adolescents going home for vacation time and possibly even staying permanently. We have another child in the adoption process with past houseparents.

Celebrate with us this gift we are given to see fruit, to see transformation, to see hope!