My Purpose...way back when

Thanks to Facebook, the Little Sister I had when I was about 20 contacted me. Of course, more than 25 years later she is no longer "little". She is actually over six feet tall.

Brenda and I got together regularly for about three years from the time she was 10. Then I got married and life kind of took over from there. Brenda was always 10 years old in my mind until she came to my house for dinner, now a grandmother!

All those years ago, when I was Living On Purpose as a young adult, I didn't realize that I would impact a girl so much that she would look me up and contact me in her late 30s.

She has come through many challenges in her life, has raised her own children to adulthood, and become a loving grandmother. I am very proud of Brenda and am thankful that she was there for me when I was looking for a way to impact the life of a child.

Foster Child #1

It's been a while since I've posted on my blog. It's not that I haven't done anything with purpose, It's just that I have done more of the same things that I've blogged about already. And then...

I got a call from a resource worker at Family and Children's Services. A set of foster parents wanted an adult weekend at their trailer park and were looking for care for their three foster children. I was asked to take the 16 year old girl Kirsten and was happy that I was available.

I spoke with the foster mom on the phone in advance to learn about this girl. I arranged to pick up Kirsten on a Saturday morning. She was quiet and shy, understandably so. I was a complete stranger to her and she had no idea what to expect over the weekend.

She was concerned that she wouldn't like what I would feed her so I decided to take her grocery shopping with me and give her some choices.

We got to my house and I showed her to her room. She would be the first person to sleep in it since it had been repainted, carpeted, and freshly decorated. She unpacked her belongings while I unpacked the groceries.

After lunch we went to the Buskers Carnival in Uptown Waterloo. We saw several acts but I didn't get the impression she was into it. We got home, had supper, and she basically just chilled in her room until bedtime.

There was no schedule for Sunday so I let her sleep as late as she wanted. When she first woke up she just watched TV in her room. I told her just to come down whenever she was ready for breakfast.

You never saw a happier girl than when Kirsten came down the steps a little later. Waking up in her own time in a quiet room was an extreme contrast to waking up to fighting between the two younger foster girls she regularly shares a room with. Her regular foster home consists of six young people and two adults so being in a house with only one other person is very different. While eating toasted waffles for breakfast, she was much more talkative than the day before.

Kirsten brought a scrapbooking project with her so after breakfast I cleared a space for her to work in my scrapbooking room. She actually completed the album she was creating as a gift. I finished a couple of odd projects myself before preparing lunch.

My first foster child had a bit more time to herself in her own room before packing up and going back home to her regular foster parents. There wasn't any feedback from Kirsten but I got the impression that for her it was like staying at a B&B.

I took a photo of Kirsten before taking her back home but can't share it for privacy reasons. Someday I will create an album of all the children who have come to stay at my home.