Harford County, MD: The Forgotten Initiative

05/04/2022

We are SO excited to celebrate our local
Foster youth! 13 young men and women have accomplished something huge! They are all getting their high school diploma or GED this spring.
That’s a major accomplishment. In 2019 64% of foster care students graduated, compared to 87% as the over all graduation rate.
A huge thank you to Desiree Ortman Photography for the AMAZING senior photos she provided for these students and hairbygoldensistah_ for giving these graduates a moment to remember and outstanding portraits to remember their graduation.

We are so proud of every thing these kids have overcome to get where they are today. We pray for their futures and hope to provide opportunities to set them up for success and celebrate them.
Freedom Church and Christ Fellowship Church are participating in the celebration. We have people from the churches who are blessing each of these seniors and celebrating them! They’re putting together gift baskets for each senior to show them how proud we are and excited for their future💛 if you’d like to get involved or like more info message us for details!

02/09/2022

Waiting until “the stars align,” and we feel secure and ready to take a leap of faith, isn’t actually a leap of faith at all.

If we're honest, the perfect time to foster or adopt isn’t ever going to come.

You’re never going to feel "ready."

You’re never going to have enough money.

You’re never going to have a "big enough" house.

You’re never going to be strong enough. (Spoiler alert: Jesus is.)

If Jesus is whispering to your heart about getting involved in foster care, we invite you to draw near to His voice.

He wants to walk that journey with you. ❤️

(Last week, we shared a new article about this very thing. You can read it here: https://theforgotteninitiative.org/2022-is-the-perfect-year-to-foster-or-adopt/)

01/16/2022

Jesus be near ❤️

💔This is the ugly part of parenting, foster care, adoption that very few are willing to talk about.

One of our kids took a seam ripper to the brand new trampoline that was gifted for Christmas from grandparents. 😭😭😭

Behaviors (good and horrific) aren’t always a direct reflection of love and parenting skills and guidance. Sometimes they are genetic and incredibly difficult (or impossible) to redirect or fix this side of heaven.

Today feels impossible.

And foster/adoptive parents often hide out away from others because it’s just too much to share and we live on a level of caring for and shielding our kids that seems suffocating. But we also want to protect our close friends and family from knowing all that is our reality.

We don’t wanna hear “you signed up for this” or do this or that or try spanking or hire help or all of the other solutions people throw out. Because we’ve thought of it all. I promise this is what we do in the spare seconds we can find for conversation with spouses or therapists.

The weight of it is heavy.

It’s isolating.

It’s deep and dark and unkind.

And sometimes I wish we could rewind time and never enter into this destruction. I said it.

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But we trust God is with us and is present and sees all we cannot.

If you have a friend on the frontlines of foster care/adoption, one of the most treasured things you can say is what one friend just said to me:

“Oh my god, friend...that is heavy and I just wanna come sit with you in it.”

Jesus, be near ❤️😭

12/10/2021

We had a blast this past Monday! We were able to have a great meal provided by a Christ Fellowship Church group. We had a presenter from DSS come and share about the importance of understanding your healthcare and how to receive and renew it as well as have discussions about advocating for your own health. After all that Cookies by Kathryn generously donated all the materials and came to share her love of cookies with the youth as they decorated their own. To end the night we had a white elephant gift exchange with all the gifts provided from the generous donations we’ve received. Thank you to everyone who makes this possible!

11/11/2021

We officially launch Life 101 the beginning of this month! You’ll be hearing lots more about this as we prepare monthly to meet with students and provide life skills and mentorship. Big thank you to Sterling Wealth Services, RJFS for coming and sharing with the youth about finance’s! Wilbur's Farm Stand for the pumpkins! And The Riley-Maher Real Estate Team for for our welcome goodie bags for the students!

11/11/2021

Join us in prayer today 🙏

10/14/2021

A sweet treat for a great cause!

The Forgotten Initiative was launched in Harford County in 2021. This past May the Freedom Church and Christ Fellowship Church partnered to celebrate and encourage the graduating youth of Harford county in foster care. They provided baskets for the department to give to the graduating students.

I’m looking forward to working with them this October!

🛒https://cookiesbykathryn.square.site/product/boo-bowls-and-the-forgotten-initiative/57

10/07/2021

We are so excited to start this class up in one month! Our goal is to provide life skills to youth in care. If you’d like more information or to sign up to volunteer please go to out website!
Big thank you to Christ Fellowship Church for hosting this class!

10/01/2021

So happy to share with Kathryn Graber and her heart forever foster care💛 when you order with her this month a portion of the proceeds will be donated to helping support our foster care community! How cute are these cookies?!

I’m excited to be partnering this month with The Forgotten Initiative. A portion of the proceeds from the Boo Bowls will be donated toward the Harford County chapter.

On any given day, there are nearly 424,000 children in foster care in the United States. In 2019, over 672,000 children spent time in U.S. foster care. On average, children remain in state care for over a year and a half, and five percent of children in foster care have languished there for five or more years.
Harford county averages 225-240 children in care at a given time.

🛒 https://cookiesbykathryn.square.site/s/shop

09/15/2021