Raging Resilience

03/13/2026

Thank you, Raging Resilience! Last night, we hosted a table of eight to support Keystone Family Alliance as they reminded us to imagine the possibilities of improving the local foster care community.

Part of what made last night so special was celebrating Keystone's 5th year of ministry. We also had the opportunity to hear directly from Lancaster's Children and Youth Services Executive Director, Crystal Natan, who shared the status and current needs of Lancaster's foster care children.

Stay tuned for more ways to help!

03/11/2026

Spot on-

Most people picture foster care in courtrooms.

Paperwork.
Case plans.
Hearings.
Decisions made by people sitting around a table.

But foster care really begins somewhere much quieter.

It begins on the first night.

The first night a child walks into a house that is completely unfamiliar.

They walk in carrying a trash bag or a small backpack with a few things thrown inside.

Nothing about it feels normal.

The house smells different.
The floors sound different when they walk.
The bedsheets feel different.

Everything around them is new, but their whole world just fell apart.

Some kids try to be brave.

They nod.
They say they are fine.
They try not to cry.

Some kids cry the moment the door closes.

And some kids go completely quiet. The kind of quiet that makes your heart ache.

Because they are not just thinking about where they are.

They are wondering where their mom is.
They are wondering if their siblings are okay.
They are wondering if anyone is coming back for them.

They are wondering how long they are going to stay.

And the foster parent is standing there trying to make something impossible feel normal.

Offering snacks.

Asking what they like to eat.

Finding pajamas that might fit.

Showing them where the bathroom is.

Telling them it is okay if they want the hallway light left on.
Telling them it is okay if they need the door open.

Trying to make a stranger’s house feel safe in the middle of one of the worst days of their life.

Everyone in that house knows something huge just happened.

A child lost everything familiar in a single day.

The first night is not about fixing trauma.

It is not about making everything better.

It is about something much smaller, and somehow much bigger at the same time.

It is about helping a child survive the hardest night they have ever had.

Just making it to morning. 🤍

02/20/2026

You know our story.
You know the foster care system is broken.
Support children and adults directly affected.

Join Nick and I for this free dinner and evening of heartwarming information, fun, and possibility. I’ve committed to hosting a table of 10 and it would mean more than you know to have friends learn about the local foster community and support Raging Resilience and Keystone Family Alliance by signing up or making a donation.

Thank you,
Erica

https://secure.fundeasy.com/ministrysync/event/home.php?e=31569

12/28/2025

Sorry Kevin McCallister, but you’re dangerously close to losing your long-standing number one spot.

This is the movie I didn’t know I needed.

You see, Martha started it- not Martha from the Bible (although she wasn’t a good example either), but Martha Stewart. She made women question their abilities to make Christmas special enough. She demonstrated the precise way in which our table linens should be folded and how our hams should shine with pineapple glaze.

From there, it just got worse. Moms became scathing savages, jumping over one another and scolding store clerks to claim their Cabbage Patch Dolls. Then, holiday themed magazine issues and Pinterest stole the show.

Recently, a nail crushed through the coffin of the simple Christmas.

Somehow, I missed out on this 1972 novel that became a shortened children’s book and two movies. I’d heard the title, “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” over the years, but God put it right in front of my face a few days ago.

As usual, He knew I was finally ready for it. What has been a classic for decades, hit our family hard. Resilience, raging or not, opens your eyes to see through a new lens. My children, husband, and I each took away different lessons.

We watched the movie days after reading the book and as I sat watching the end of it with tears quietly trailing down my cheeks, I couldn’t help but be thankful. Christmas suddenly looked much simpler and more straightforward.

Maybe you need to watch it too.

Merry Christmas! 🎄

05/22/2025

Ever go through an experience and feel like nobody “gets it”? Well, I’m not sure if the big whigs at Netflix knew that May is National Foster Care Awareness month, but they gave me this gift regardless.

A shadow of isolation can follow us despite the number of people with whom we surround ourselves.

You remember… those lunches in the break room as you anticipated taking your mom to her first chemo treatment or your son’s soccer game… numbly laughing at another mom’s story while figuring out how to tell your son about the upcoming divorce. Nobody “gets it.”

For me, that detachment never feels stronger than when someone tells me my adopted children look like me or we’re awake on a Tuesday at midnight trying to explain to our tween why he wasn’t read to when he was younger. How do you convince them you’re never going to run out of groceries? Nobody “gets it.”

Thankfully, through conferences, support groups, and various trainings, we’ve connected with our community of those who understand.

For one reason or another, you’ve found this page and expressed interest in supporting the local foster care community. Why not understand it a bit more?

Sure, Hollywood added its own entertaining twist and a number of swear words to this based on a true story movie, but you catch the drift. Plus, you can’t go wrong with Mark Wahlberg~

I digress. Anyway, after careful thought, we recently watched this with our children. We laughed. We cried. We felt less alone and more normal~ like somebody “gets it.”

Check it out. Get a glimpse of our journey. Grab your tissues for the hairbrush scenes as they hit a little too close to home. Watch it and start to “get it.”

04/29/2025

What an event! Keystone Family Alliance does it up in a way that brings tears to your eyes, makes you laugh out loud, and humbles your heart when hearing the grave statistics of the local Lancaster County foster care crisis.

Raging Resilience hosted a table and while we didn’t win the trivia contest, we had a moving evening. Thank you to those who joined us! Our eyes were opened to the unseen in Lancaster County.

Who are the unseen? The unseen social worker with 28 on her caseload-

Who? The family of five who know they want to do more and think… if we only had some help from our church and community, we would consider taking another placement.

Who? The husband and wife only into six months of fostering, but tempted to quit because of the strain on their marriage. They know 90% of foster parents quit before their two year mark.

Who? The Lancaster Intervention Center staff member who gets no thanks and feels defeated in an impossible system to break.

There is hope! Keystone has implemented ways to make it easier for foster families, ways to be supportive of biological families, and ways to recognize and show appreciation to CYS and YIC employees.

Ask me for more information related to Keystone Family Alliance and stay tuned to see how Raging Resilience is going to make an impact next!



Photo Credit- Andie Fox, Nancy Haas

04/28/2025

The average foster care caseworker carries 24-31 cases at a time. That is a burden hard to carry alone.⁠
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04/23/2025

Having worked in nonprofit, I saw firsthand the desires of people who wanted to help, but the logistical challenges that stood in the way. YIC is no exception. There are not enough staff. There is not enough space.

I delivered our final 10 bags last week. With careful hesitation, I decided to have our teen daughter help me. She had heard of foster children needing to live in shelters if foster families weren’t available. Hearing about… and seeing… are two very different levels of comprehension.

A realization that her story could’ve gone in a different direction led to a somber drive home and extra tight hugs later that evening. As I looked into her eyes, I reminded her that she made an impact.

She handed some of the very tools that cleared the path for her own raging resilience to a YIC employee who will give them to another vulnerable child. We’re breaking the cycle.

You’ve, helped break the cycle. Thank you.

04/05/2025

03/27/2025

This was the last picture taken of myself before I met our two teen children. What a doozie of a picture! You see, my husband and I were at (you’ll never guess) Ollie’s, searching for an area rug for a child’s bedroom- a child whom we hadn’t yet met.

We went from being 40 with no children to parenting tweens the week before schools shut down for this thing called, Covid.

Life changed.

It has a habit of doing that- life. Changing. Being unpredictable. Forrest Gump described it best, “Life is like a box of chocolates…”

With that unfailing change comes choice. I’ve learned that resilience comes to those who actively decide to move forward. While the path may not be clear, the notion to advance is distinct.