Jordan Bennett’s Story

It is an amazing thing to look around your own life and be overwhelmed with gratitude in a way that compels you to share it. That is how our journey with Safe Families started. We realized we could stand shoulder to shoulder as a family and offer our time, our home, our love. and serve families in need right here where we lived.

 

 

Safe Families is a program in which we “host” kids while their parent does what needs to happen to be able to care for them or prevent going into the foster system. We’ve had over 30 kids in our home ranging from 3 to 90 day periods and have been able to come alongside a lot of single moms as their bridge to stability. There are so many stories that come to mind—the time I gave a piggy-back ride to an 8-year old and she said “I’ve never had a piggy-back before!”.  Or the time an older brother wouldn’t eat his breakfast until his younger brother ate first and after he knew his little brother had had enough to eat, he finished his own breakfast.  After a few weeks, most of the kids end up calling me dad because nearly every kid we have hosted does not have a dad at home. We can’t fix all the problems, and we CAN show kids that life can look different. They see that marriage works when you work at it.  They see that families can love and care for each other. They see that God is alive and well and most importantly that God deeply cares for them.

 

 

Being a safe family reminds us of all the good we have to share, on the great and tough days. It puts life in perspective and enables us to serve as a family, side by side in the ups and downs of what we’ve come to call joyful chaos with our two kids and up to 3 more. Safe Families has taught our children to see the bigger picture and get out of their bubble. It teaches our kids to get beyond themselves and to live out James 1:27, caring for the widows and orphans. It means living life to the fullest, with full, wide-open arms to those that need it.”

 

 

Here is a picture of our two kids (Theo, first on the right and Emma, third on the right), some of their friends, and three safe families kids that we hosted for 3 months (2, 3, and 4 on the left).