Grace for Teens and the Unknown

This week's episode is full of goodness! We are so thankful to have our sweet friend, Grace Sharp, on the podcast with us. She is a new foster mom (3 months in!) but previously worked as a Group Home Manager.  For those who don't know what a Group Home is, it is a house (in a regular old neighborhood like yours and ours), where they usually have about 10 foster kids living in this home. Some people also call this Congregate Care.  We agree with Grace that Group Homes are better than nothing, but foster parents would be a far superior alternative. In a foster home (even one that has 10 kids in it) - the main difference is the stability and the consistency of 1 or 2 primary caregivers. As opposed to hired hands, who often quit because the toll this job can take on a person. In this episode, we learned that: PSMAPP classes, which are now 6 weeks long, instead of 11. This involves a 3 hours class once a week, with 4 hours of online classes through the week. This sounds so good! There is a great book called: 'The F-Word (Finance!)' , and this is where Grace got the idea of 'the cost of happy'. ie. finding a way to pay for Starbucks, or AirPods, if it makes you happy! We do not need to be afraid of the unknown! Especially teenagers! They need love, and support, and a text every now and again to check in on them! Whether you can foster one or many, or even volunteer as a mentor - this is life-altering stuff! The (Good) Word of the Day: "that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need." Acts 4:34-35 Anyone who had need was taken care of in Biblical times. Can we return to that time? Can we recreate it? Can we care for those who need to be taken care of?