Finding Home
Jacob*, an energetic and bright six-year-old on our Dothan campus, didn’t come into our care feeling very hopeful or sure of his future.
His father had a hard history of substance abuse, which led to Jacob ultimately being placed with us at ABCH. Before coming to us, he had been told by his case worker that if his dad came to a visit one more time while under the influence, that he would lose his parental rights and Jacob would either grow up at our Campus Care home or be placed in a new foster home.
Understandably, this was very difficult information for a six-year-old to hear and comprehend. Area Director for Dothan, Kim McGainey, shares, “When I initially met with Jacob, it was apparent that he was still processing this information.”
Jacob wasn’t quite sure what to make of his new home in Campus Care with many new brothers and sisters, but after about a month there, Kim got a pretty good idea of how he felt, as they were playing a game.
While in the game room at our Dothan home, Kim says that Jacob was envisioning what it would be like to design a computer game where he could create his own character. The invented character he began to describe was clearly him, says Kim, “He was a 6-year-old, entering first grade, who likes to wear plaid—that’s our Jacob.”
In the middle of this make-believe, they began to talk about the kind of home this character should live in, and the home that Jacob began describing was the Campus Care home.
Jacob first asked Kim, “What kind of home do you think we should create for him to live in?” Instead of answering him directly though, Kim asked him for his thoughts, and Jacob said, “I think he should live in a home where he is loved, has fun, and gets to go on family vacations.”
She could tell in his answer that, “He had decided that he was going to be okay, and his home, being the Campus Care home, was a good place to live.”
Later this same day, as she was getting him down for bed, Kim read to Jacob a devotional and prayed with him, as Jacob prayed to receive Christ!
“I found such joy in knowing that Jacob felt loved, safe, and secure in his home and learned of his Heavenly Father who cherishes him and has a plan for him,” Kim said.
As a ministry, we see a lot of important reasons to care for children, but the greatest is for this—for them to gain a heavenly home and a Savior who, in the ebbs and flows of their lives, will never change in His love towards them and will always be with them.
*Name changed to protect privacy