ROUND ROCK—It all started in 1979 when a woman walked into the office of Charles Wright, administrator of Texas Baptist Children’s Home, and asked if the program could care for her children while she turned her life around.
That conversation sparked the Family Care Program, a Christian residential ministry now celebrating 30 years of service to mothers and their children.
More than 200 past and present Family Care moms and their children gathered to celebrate three decades of changed lives and rebuilt families last month. Every woman present shared something in common with the woman who sought help in 1979. Like her, they came with careworn faces, fleeing abuse, debt-ridden, hungry or on the verge of becoming homeless.
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Family Care moms and children past and present gathered in front of the Texas Baptist Children’s Home Chapel for a group photo during a reunion of those who have been helped through the ministry’s 30 years.
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And, of course, there is the worry that they wouldn’t be good enough, wouldn’t achieve even the smallest goal, or wouldn’t overcome. At Family Care, they realized all they needed to do was try and believe. The rest will fall into place.
In 1998, Heather Pauly came into the program with her first child because she “had nowhere else to go.” She stayed for a while, left, then came back after her second child was born in 2001, determined to make the lessons she learned stick.
She began attending school through a Family Care scholarship and earned her teaching degree a semester early. Today, she is in her fifth year teaching kindergartners in Killeen.
“This program saved my life,” she admitted. “My self-confidence is where it is today because of Family Care. This is my family.”
When a mother and her children are admitted to Family Care, the case manager helps each mom create a list of attainable goals for herself and her family. Mothers are responsible for child care and maintaining their living quarters in the home-like cottages, and they are required to hold down jobs and save money. Melinda McElhaney arrived at Family Care with her four children in tow. At the time of the reunion, she had been on campus about a week.
“I walked into the cottage and couldn’t help myself,” she said. “I started crying. It was so beautiful. Then I saw we had our own place to sleep with our own bathroom, there was a playroom and this wonderful kitchen with a refrigerator full of food just for us. It was overwhelming.”
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Family Care also provides counseling to their clients, both past and present. Every Monday night staff and residents share their fears, worries and sorrows.
“God has blessed the efforts of a lot of people to make this ministry possible,” said Jerry Bradley, Children At Heart Ministries president and CEO. “Serving children and strengthening families is still the heart of our ministry, and Family Care does that every day.”
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