Preparing for Goodbye

Abba's House is a temporary place of safety. This means that when we accept a new child into our home, we know they are not staying with us forever. They, normally, are not even staying with us for a year. Keeping this in mind, we choose to focus daily on how much a child is growing and changing, becoming stronger and healthier, while they are in our care, rather than when the goodbye is coming.

Quite often with children in our care, we don't know the outcome of their case until the courts declare it done. This means that some children are with us only a matter of days (that's only happened once, but it's still a possibility), or a matter of many months. It all depends on the investigation results, the effort or willingness of a child's family members to remedy the situation, and the availability of forever homes for children in our area (whether that be reunification, adoption, long-term fostering, medical residency, or youth center residency). None of these steps are we involved in.

Our job is simply to care for the child, meet their needs, keep them safe, until the decisions are made. Our passion is one step more than that. Beyond meeting their needs, our passion is to see a broken, hurt, scared, little soul grow into a confident, healthy, strong young child that is capable of not only handling but thriving in the next chapter of their lives, whatever that chapter may bring.

So we don't often focus on the goodbyes. But, we do prepare for them slowly along the way. When a child arrives in our custody, we create a file for them, an online photo album for them, a memory book, and a memory box where created items and gifts toys/clothes are saved for their departure day. Then, when we know the handover is scheduled and coming, we put together a pack of things for each child to take with them. In that pack is a printed copy of their memory book (full of milestones, photos, information, and more about their time with us), a USB stick with all of their important documents and their saved photos & videos, a bag of all of their collected memory items, a hand-made blanket (donated by loving aunties), a couple of special Christian books/tracts gifted to us to spread the gospel, and a bag with a few sets of clothes, medications, toys, and other essential items to help their families get started in providing the best care possible for their child.

We also prepare ourselves, as a team and individually. And on the handover day when we are to present the child in court to be handed over to their next caregivers, we stop and pray over the child, over their families (past and future), and over everyone who care for that child. We know that God has a purpose for each and every child He brings into our care. And we long for them to know this as well.