The Shack

Behind us is the shack

When people find out we have so many children the first thing we hear is "wow you must have a huge house". The answer is no. We live in an old country home. It was originally 3 bedroom and two bath. That has changed many times. As we have added on, moved walls, added walls, removed same walls. Our home is old and constant in need of repairs. As you can imagine there is always something needing painted or repaired or patched. But this home holds lots of memories and I can not imagine living anywhere else.

About 12 years ago we had a sibling group that was being returned to bio Mom. It was bitter sweet because we had fallen in love with these girls. But that is the goal of foster care to love and care for these kids until parents get better and they can go home. They went home and two days later we got another sibling group that filled our empty beds. Nine days later we got the call that our girls had went back into foster care and could we take them back?

We had filled the spots and had no place for them. We went and purchased a portable building. We hastily finished the inside and moved our two teens then 17 and 18 into the building so that we could make room for the girls to come home. Later we added on to the house and I was blessed to be able to use this cabin as an art room, an escape a place for the kids to get messy and get away.

More recent this cabin has turned into a refuge for my grown children. All of my sewing and craft items have been packed away to storage as various children have moved back home. They have used this cabin to regroup and save money and start again. This is their safe place. The only rule we have on the shack is that they have to be going to school or working or both to live there. No rent or charges just a safe place to regroup.

There are times that we have a waiting list as one moves out another moves in. We have opened it to former foster children trying to get on their feet. It has been dubbed the mini mansion, the cabin, the little house. I call it the shack. My wish is to have three more "shacks" to open to struggling kids.

By the way we did adopt both sibling groups in the story above.