A few months ago I wrote a story called “A Grandmother’s Journey” focusing on one of our more rare cases that was heading toward adoption for all the right reasons.
The Grandmother, Mary we called her, had been diagnosed with terminal cancer, and the future of her 5 year old granddaughter whom she had guardianship of, hung in the balance.
The 5 year old—Anna we called her—had one of those mother’s you can’t understand. She had already lost a number of children to foster care. She had no place to call home, no stability to raise a child in, and hardly any relationship with her daughter at all.
Mary had been one of my first cases when I began working in Madison County, a little over a year ago. Safe Families had been providing this Grandma with weekend respite, since she had terminal cancer and all. We soon realized that Mary had no plan for Anna after she died, and she feared the likelihood that Anna would fall back into the hands of her mother when she passed.
Our families are not usually pre-adoptive families. But sometimes, as God would have it, things change based on circumstances. I love it when I get to witness a match between a bio family and a host family that only Heaven could make. The Brown’s and Anna were one such match. The Brown family expressed interest in adopting little Anna after they realized what she was facing and stepped forward to answer this mighty call, feeling that this little girl had not fallen in their families’ path by mistake.
You must know—the Brown’s are one of those families that have a heart both for the child and the parent… or in this case the grandparent. And so, one day we sat around a big table in our Safe Families office and discussed the future of this placement: If the Brown’s were going to adopt Anna how long would Anna stay with Mary while she tried to manage daily life on top of a terminal illness?
Heidi, the pre-adoptive mother, told Mary with such heartfelt emotion, “Mary, we don’t just want to adopt Anna. Anna needs you too. And we want you too Mary,” tears were now welling up in my eyes and Heidi’s too. “We want you to move closer to us. There are small apartments two blocks away. We could bring you and Anna to us, and she could spend as much time with you as possible.”
There was silence for a few moments and then, Mary replies, “Well, I’ve always said I need to get out of Anderson…”
That was enough. We decided to continue the conversation later and keep the weekend placements going until Anna finished school.
Last Saturday was the big move. The Brown’s and their incredible church family came to load up 3 trucks and move Mary and Anna an hour and a half away, where they both will live until Mary exists the earth.
For Anna, her 5 years on this earth have been uncertain and unpredictable. Now she finally has a place to process her young emotions, and a family that will give her her beloved Grandma until she is gone, and then will take her into their arms as their own, forever.
This is one miracle that is happening in Madison County! The miracles that God brings together never cease to amaze me. These relationships that God initiates are rarely free of difficulty or strife, but they are always overshadowed by the love and grace of God.
We hope to be able to continue to facilitate the stories that God places in our hands here in Madison County. Fundraising is a huge effort for us right now! SFFC Madison County has been operating off of seed money from our Central Indiana extension, but we are down to nickels and dimes! Safe Families has a growing presence in Madison County and we are putting forth major efforts at making this a sustainable program for years to come by recruiting and training competent volunteers and fundraising.
