5 minute read
It Takes A Village
Story By Wil Crews Photos Contributed By Village Foster Care and Adoptive Ministry
Wes and Meg Roberts’ first foster care assignment saw the young couple meet a social worker outside the steps of the Lee County Courthouse to pick up a 6-monthold baby girl who possessed hardly anything but the clothes on her back.
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Already having two biological sons of their own, the Roberts quickly realized they were ill-prepared to support
the needs of a baby girl.
“When we got our daughter, all we were handed was a diaper bag with maybe two sleepers in it and one bottle,” Meg said.
Thankfully, the Roberts had the resources to immediately go to the local Target and purchase everything that was needed. And, within the first week, the Roberts had received donations and overwhelming help from their church family at Golden Acres Baptist Church in Phenix City.
Sadly, for many new foster families, the support the Roberts received is far from a reality. In fact, the circumstances of foster care can oftentimes be so difficult that, according to fostermore.com, 30 to 50% of foster families quit within their first year.
“It kind of occurred to us, ‘how do people do this without having a support system and stuff?’” Meg said. “There is such a need for good foster homes, and we thought ‘what can we do to help them?’”
About a month into their first placement, Meg was praying one evening and thanked God for her “village” — family, friends and her church, which had helped her build a family along the way. Familiar with the work of the foster-centered Big House Foundation in Opelika, and realizing the lack of a similar organizations closer to Russell and Muskogee County, it finally hit the Roberts.
“[Wes] was like, ‘that’s it,’” Meg said. “’Why don’t we start something, getting these families to say yes to foster care. We are called to be the village for other people. We need to be the village for this community and foster care families.”’
That’s when Village Foster Care and Adoptive Ministry came about. A place where adoptive families can come and shop for clothes, shoes, underwear and other essential items for both their adoptive and biological children, it’s been serving Lee, Russell, Muskogee and Harris County since May 2018. With the financial backing of Golden Acres Church, it is run completely by volunteers, and everything in the store is donated by community members, business or other churches. Foster families can visit the store once a month to pick out 15 items for each child and receive them for free.
“We have had kids come in the village before and they don’t even have shoes on their feet,” Meg said. “Some of these kids don’t even have the basic essentials to get through everyday life.”
Village Foster Care and Adoptive Care Ministry is always accepting donations, volunteers or financial support. It needs underwear and socks, and gently used clothes for new borns to adult sizes.
“If you’re going to donate, please make sure its gently used or your best,” Meg said.
It also accepts diapers, wipes, toiletries, baby formula, shoes, cribs and other baby gear. In particular, older boy clothing is a primary need.
“The boys either totally destroy it or run through it, but once they get older, guys just don’t swap their clothes out all the time like girls,” Meg said. “So we get a lot of girl’s stuff but not as much boys.”
Aside from opening the store to local families, Village Foster Care and Adoptive Ministry also offers a number of special-occasion services.
For example, during the summer, it works with area social workers to do a backpack drive, where children in need are identified and gifted a backpack full of supplies to return to school with. There is also the Village Angel Tree Shop that comes around at Christmas time.
“We have several days set up where families can come and shop for brand new toys,” Meg said. “It’s really something neat to watch them come in and pick out toys, just their thankfulness.”
In the case that a social worker calls Meg or Wes late at night with a need, one of the two or a volunteer will pack an emergency care bag to be delivered to the foster parents to help get the couple through the first few days.
Overall, Village Foster Care and Adoptive Ministry serves about 100 children a month.
“When they come and shop, we are open just like a normal children’s store would be,” Meg said. “I keep it set up like a really nice children’s boutique. I don’t want families and children to feel like they have to dig through leftovers. Everything is organized by size and gender. Everything is freshly laundered. I just want to restore some dignity to the child because they just had so much loss. It’s amazing what a new dress and little hair bow can do for a little girl. They need to feel like they are special.
“Everything else has been ripped out from under them but they still have a little sense of belonging. These kids want to be just like every other kid at school. They want whatever comes out. I only give them the best ... They come in so down, and when you give them that freedom to shop and pick out whatever, there whole personality kind of changes by the time they leave the store.”
Village Foster Care and Adoptive Ministry officially became a class 501(c)(3) nonprofit last summer, and is located at 9209 Lee Road 246, Unit D. The store is open on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern time. For appointments, call: 334-3920166. It can also be reached via Facebook at TheVillageFosterCareandAdoptiveMinistry.
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