Got Worries? New Life Girls Make a Doll for That

Helen Peck, a 13-year-old Girl Scout and 8^th grader from Austin, is working on her Girl Scout Silver Award project, and she recently brought her great idea and excellent organizational skills to New Life Children’s Center. If you are not familiar with a Girl Scout Silver Project, it is a big, sustainable project a girl plans, leads, and implements to help out her community. 

Helen attended a “We Are Girls Conference” in Austin and went to a “Kiss Your Worries Goodbye” class where girls get to make miniature dolls out of pipe cleaners and scrap cloth materials. As they each create their own unique doll, they make a special connection with it, and the doll becomes a sort of diary replacement that a girl can tell her private troubles, worries, and special moments to—actually saying these things aloud instead of keeping them locked up inside. This is especially appealing to girls who don’t like journaling (or writing in a diary) or for those who have trouble with writing.

So Helen wanted to set up a worry doll program in a place that helps girls. A place like New Life. Helen thought of New Life because she knew her church (St. Paul Lutheran Church in Austin) makes quilts and has donation collections for the New Life girls. She made several example dolls, and offered to coordinate the initial set-up with all materials and hold a workshop to teach the girls how to make the dolls and the staff how to teach the process.

We loved Helen’s idea, but because of some of the behaviors of our residents, we would be unable to use the pipe cleaners.  We have girls here who are self-harmers so we don’t allow anything sharp, metal or pointed.  So Helen proposed using Wikki Stixinstead of pipe cleaners to make the worry dolls, The Wiki Stix can be bent and posed like pipe cleaners, but they don’t have wires inside. This was an excellent solution because they are sold in many stores and are inexpensive to boot. With Wikki Stix, the girls can also use their creativity to make accessories and extras to go with their dolls, like dogs, cats, purses, earrings, sunglasses, and necklaces. 

The class allowed the girls to be creative, watch their own doll come to life, and then to confide their worries and concerns to the dolls instead of keeping them inside themselves. Helen left us with instructions and enough supplies for each cottage to hold another Wikki Stix session again.

FIT Adoption Day in Laredo

May 18th was a big day for Foster In Texas in Laredo. The 406th Judicial Court under Judge Oscar Hale consummated SIX(!) adoptions for our Laredo foster families. The court was filled with balloons and laughter, as the children anxiously waited for their turn to “officially” become part of a forever family at last! This was a day filled with joy and happiness for the children and their adoptive parents. This day was a reminder of why we love what we do!!

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Singing the Praises of Our Unsung Heroes During Foster Care Month

We’d like you to meet another one of our amazing foster families: Steve and Connie Murr. We think they’re amazing because of the work they do with our Foster In Texas (FIT) kids. The Murrs have fostered more than 200 children over the past 30 years! A big percentage of these children have had serious medical conditions that require extensive monitoring and a high level of care.

This video gives a little glimpse into “a day in the life” of the Murrs. They are busy people who love what they do – caring for the children who need it the most. Since May is National Foster Care Month, please join us in singing the praises of families like the Murrs! It’s also a great time to consider if becoming a foster parent might be in your own future—our online interest form is the starting point …

Warm & Fuzzy Gifts for New Life

The National Junior Honor Society of Redeemer Lutheran School in Austin raised more than $300 in just six weeks by holding bake sales.  The service-oriented group then took their hard-earned funds to the Build-a-Bear store, where they gathered all the supplies they needed to create 11 adorable animals for the Point Store at New Life Children’s Center.

The New Life girls earn “points” for good behavior, and once they’ve accumulated enough points get to pick out their reward. These Build-a-Bear creations are so cute they are super motivating for the girls. Thank you Redeemer NJHS for a grrreat team effort!

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Foster Care Month: Featuring Our Unsung Heroes

We’d like you to meet two of our Foster In Texas (FIT) parents: Marcel and Ann Perry. We think they’re amazing because of the work they do with our FIT kids. The Perrys are currently caring for six (!) teenage boys, if you can imagine it. We acknowledge that foster parenting is not an easy job, but for those families with the “right stuff” it’s more than a job, it’s a calling!

Foster parents like the Perrys want to give the children in their charge every chance in life. That often requires funding beyond the daily stipend they receive. If becoming a foster parent is a possibility in your future, we’d love to hear from you – Just go to the online application form. If not, and you admire and want to help support families like the Perrys, a donation to Foster In Texas would be a great way to show your appreciation – during National Foster Care Month and every day of the year.

Mark Etheredge & Evan Moilan Join Lutheran Social Services Board

Mark Etheredge of Fort Worth and Evan Moilan of Bastrop have been elected to the Lutheran Social Services of the South (LSS) Board of Directors.

LSS provides foster care and adoption services through the agency’s 15 offices throughout Texas, and operates two children’s residential treatment centers, one emergency refugee children’s shelter, six senior living communities, emergency assistance in the Lubbock area, and help and support for hurricane and disaster victims.

Etheredge is a senior vice president at Nationstar Mortgage and focuses on business intelligence and data services. He is a finance and information technology professional with more than 18 years experience of financial, technology, and project management experience. He has worked extensively in the industrial products, high technology, financial services and consumer foods industries, and has held positions ranging from director of Consulting Services to chief financial officer.

Moilan is the Chief Executive Officer of the Lutheran Foundation of the Southwest, an organization that manages the financial assets of its Lutheran partnerships. His background includes serving as a Philanthropic Advisor for Lutheran World Relief, Executive Director of Lutherhill Ministries, and Vice President of the TX-LA Gulf Coast Synod.

Selection for the LSS Board is based on demonstrated interest, expertise, and involvement in serving LSS through its social ministries, and carrying out its mission of providing help, healing, and hope to those in need, regardless of religious beliefs, ethnicity, gender, or age.

A Tribute to Foster Moms on Mother’s Day

Haiku

Kids with no first chance

Get a second one―because

Foster moms are there

YOU, foster moms, are a mother’s day gift from the heart! Twenty-four hours a day, you’re a source of comfort, stability, and love to children who have never known or experienced the meaning of the words. YOU are the most important part of the child’s treatment team. We are all part of this effort because we know and see for ourselves how well children can do when they have caring and reliable foster parents to help them through hard times.

A favorite column by Erma Bombeck tells of God in the act of creating mothers. On the day God created mothers He had already worked long overtime, and an angel said to Him, “Lord, you sure are spending a lot of time on this one.” God replied, “Have you read the specs on this model?” then rattles off a list of impossible requirements, including 180 moving parts and six pairs of hands, all able to run on black coffee and leftovers.

A foster mom’s specs demand even more than “standard” mother models. You must have a heart big enough to encompass other mothers’ children, and the fortitude to work through the challenges and issues that accompany their shattered pasts.

You know, if it was easy, anyone could do it. Remember, you’re not just anyone – you’re a FOSTER MOM.

Wii Bowlers are Top Dogs at VGF

The third annual “Wii Top Dog Bowling Tournament” at The Village at Gleannloch Farms (VGF) drew a crowd of more than 50. “More than 50” would describe (in an understated way) the age of the winning team, as the senior residents took on the staff and whupped them for the third year running.

The residents’ Wii bowling coach and leader is 94-year-old Dan Morford, who brought the game along with his enthusiasm to VGF in 2006. [That’s Morford pictured above on the right, with rival Tab Werner, head of health services at VGF.] Blindness in one eye hasn’t stopped Morford, who touts the benefits of the game as a way to sharpen skills such as balance and concentration.

“Once I got a few people interested, it spread like wildfire,” said Morford. “It’s like any other game of skill, it adds to your enthusiasm.” Each team had 16 members but 25 residents purchased team shirts, with the slogan “Very Good Friends” (VGF, get it?) printed on the front.

Morford has experience with “actual bowling,” having taken up the game playing on a team in El Paso after he retired from the education field. He was a teacher, a counselor, an assistant principal and a principal. Now he can add “Wii bowling coach” to his resume.

VGF residents and staff were in agreement that the bowling tourney is not entirely about the score … it’s for the fun of it. Morford and some of his teammates practice the game whenever they have time to spare. No doubt about it, Wii bowling is right up their alley!

ABOUT THE VILLAGE AT GLEANNLOCH FARMS
Sponsored and owned by LSS, The Village at Gleannloch Farms is a not-for-profit community offering 123 independent living apartments and cottages for active adults aged 62 and above. In addition, the community offers a continuum of care including 30 assisted living apartments, 18 memory support residences, and 35 private skilled nursing suites.

It’s National Foster Care “Change a Lifetime” Month

May is the month when Lutheran Social Services, along with other agencies and child advocates across the nation, are raising awareness for the more than 400,000 American children and youth in foster care. May is the month to shine the spotlight on the unsung HEROES to these children – the foster parents who help them have the safe, happy lives they deserve.

In appreciation and recognition of the tremendous contributions of our Foster In Texas (FIT) parents, a simple “Thank-you” seems insufficient. But Foster Care Month does give us one more opportunity to let them know how very much we appreciate all they do to help these children heal and move on from the lives that led them here. Thanks to them, many formerly abused or neglected children and teens now have caring adults on their side, and permanent, lifelong connections.

Right now, LSS-FIT has an urgent need statewide for nurturing adults to step up and get involved – and support our nation’s most vulnerable children by becoming verified foster parents. We have 15 foster and adoption offices in Texas – all report they have children waiting for placement. Not only large sibling groups, medically fragile children, and teens, but also infants who need a secure place where they can thrive.

“Everyday people” are serving as foster parents. Can you, or someone you know, help these kids in crisis realize their full potential? Their own families are not in a position to care for them for a variety of reasons, none of them good. Child welfare issues arise in families of every race, ethnicity, and age group.

Of course, not everyone is in the position to fill the role of foster parent, but there are more ways to show you care. You can get involved as a volunteer, mentor, or respite provider. You can help us celebrate National Foster Care Month by donating directly to Foster In Texas, where your donations will support the special trauma-informed care training and extensive clinical support that helps our foster families avoid burnout, and experience success.

All your questions can be answered with a visit to FosterInTexas.org. Call 877-747-8110 for an information packet, or submit an interest form.

More help, more homes, are needed. Because all children deserve a hopeful future!