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http://www.respiteretreat.org
About us
Well, if you’re here on my blog, then you’re likely in crisis mode and about at the end of your wits. I understand! You could say I’ve “been there, done that”. My husband and I have five children: ages 5, 7, 8, 18 and 20. When our older son, now age 18, was two years old he was diagnosed severely autistic. So severe that his doctors recommended we institutionalize him because he would “never function in society”. We have since served many years as Therapeutic Foster Parents to extremely emotionally-disturbed children, particularly those suffering from Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD). The “experts” wrote most of those children off as “unreachable”, too. Those doctors and “experts” were all WRONG … and today our son is an extraordinary young man and many of those foster children have made great strides toward healing. If you’re putting your trust in the knowledge/skills/abilities/expertise of a mere human, then you’re on a path of never-ending despair and frustration. Jesus Christ is Lord of all and He can heal these children, as He did our son! God gave us the strength to parent our son and taught us some parenting skills and structure that He later used to heal our son. Years later, those same skills and structure helped us to minister to severely-disturbed children: those who had shot others in the face with no remorse, set fires, or were sexual predators. Obviously we in the RAD-community have got to do a better job of preparing and equipping the children’s FAMILY’s with the same tools and training that WE have. What good is it if we know all the tricks and the children respond well here, only to go back to the same home environment that did not work previously? We’ve spent hours and hours and hours working with these children on respite and in foster care only to watch them dissolve when they return home. There are some fantastic programs across the nation and I encourage you to research all of them. I am partial to Nancy Thomas because she has made such a positive impact on me and the children we’ve ministered to over the years, but there are other great options like Dr. Karyn Purvis. For our part, my husband and I are working on plans to use this 50-acre guest farm for some Respite Retreats, mini bonding "camps", week-long "intensives" with Nancy Thomas and other attachment experts, training respite providers, and building an equine therapy program. The farm has three lovely log cabins, each sleeps six comfortably. The main crops are peace and tranquility.
