Hope at Home

Hope at Home Real Families. Real Help. Real Hope. www.hopeathome.org

The 2014 Hope at Home Conference will be a time of refreshing as we encounter the Father’s heart towards adoptive families. It is going beyond a traditional conference to equip and restore parents as they face the challenging task of transforming orphans into sons and daughters.

10/10/2021

Nothing you are facing today, nothing your child is struggling with today, is bigger than God.
Just a quick perspective adjustment for anyone else who might need it!
Anxiety yields to hope as we make this adjustment. And oh how we need hope!

10/07/2021

We so long to see our children enjoy the full benefits of adoption. To live in the freedom that love offers—freedom from rejection, from fear, from the effects of trauma, and so much more. These are the things we ourselves need as well!

What if this last part of 2021 is the time for us to believe like we have never done before?!

In years to come we will all have stories to tell of this season. BUT..... what if we decide this day, October 7, 2021, this will be a year of increased faith to see each child receive more healing and more freedom.
What if the stories of pandemic, fear, politics….. are overshadowed by the healing God did in each member of your family and mine?

Faith is our “handle on what we can’t see.” Grab hold of that handle this year dear friends.

“The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see. The act of faith is what distinguished our ancestors, set them above the crowd.”
‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭11:1-2‬ ‭MSG‬‬

10/06/2021

"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." Psalm 139:14

Scriptural Declarations :
My child is fearfully + wonderfully made.
I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Sometimes time + repetition have caused the simple truths to loose their potency in our lives. But I've been back at the basics lately. My declaration recently has been "I am fearfully and wonderfully made." I've struggled seeing my own lack, imperfection and weakness as a woman and a mom of late. Some days I don't feel wonderful, I feel like a disappointment. Can anyone relate? In these moments, we can either sink into the self-loathing thoughts or we renew our minds with the truth of scripture.

Maybe you struggle to see the wonder in yourself these days or maybe it's with the handful of a child you are trying to raise as they struggle through healing, attachment, and trauma issues. Maybe you don't understand what is going on in their little heads and their behavior is beyond frustrating + exhausting. These seasons take a toll not only on our nerves but on our perspectives. If you are struggling to see the wonder in your child right now begin with this declaration afresh:

This child is fearfully and wonderfully made.

Say it as you brush her hair at night. Say it as you pick up his dirty clothes off the floor in the morning. Say it to them, around them, and when they are not even home. The truth remains - regardless of what you see or feel or fear - your child was fearfully and wonderfully made by God and what God creates is GOOD and full of wonder.

You are entrusted to be a wonder-seeker in your child's life, to keep mining for the treasure with a confident expectation of finding it.

I am working on doing that not only with my children but with myself in this season. I pray you will too. God's greatest handiwork is found in you, and in me, and in our children... {Jenny Lynn}

A triggered, anxious or angry parent has a tough time helping a triggered, anxious or angry child. Just as you were taug...
10/04/2021

A triggered, anxious or angry parent has a tough time helping a triggered, anxious or angry child.
Just as you were taught to avoid "time outs" and rather draw your child close to you when discipline is needed, you may need your own "time in," not with your child, but with your own Father.

Be the Connected Child you learned about in your adoption/foster care training classes.
When you connect again with the love of Father God for you, you will find that you are able to respond to the need beneath that troubling behavior rather than react to your child's difficult actions or words.
You, dear parent, are the Beloved Child of your Father God. {Beth}

10/02/2021

Who does the heavy lifting at your house? I’ve lost count of all the dorm rooms, apartments, and houses we have helped our 7 children move into, and out of! Many times I have found myself holding the corner of a sofa or table, in reality bearing none of the real weight as my husband and sons do the heavy lifting.

And today I am trying to bear the weight of an urgent need in my child, I am struggling to move this pain from its crushing position and I can not get it to budge.

I can not do the heavy lifting.

So once again I look to Holy Spirit today, and I am encouraging you to do so as well dear friend, remembering what I already know but somehow forgot—He is the heavy lifter in this constant moving from one developmental place to the next that is parenting. {Beth}

09/29/2021

"Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation. God settles the solitary in a home; he leads out the prisoners to prosperity" Psalm 68:5-6

What a God we serve. This is who He is and what He does for each of us... and our children.
He fathers.
He adopts.
He protects.
He settles.
He creates belonging.
He sets prisoners free.
He leads us into abundance.
He fosters fruitfulness in once barren lives.

When you aren't sure what tomorrow will hold for you or your child, remember that in the midst of your uncertainity and worry God is immutably good and consistent in nature. So instead of speaking the fear, declare His nature described in the verse above.

Which aspect of His nature here speaks to your heart today? For me, its the promise that He is a God who settles. He settles our children into our homes. He settles our anxious hearts. He settles us with His comforting presence and faithful promises. I need fresh awareness and manifestation of the God who settles this week. What about you?
{Jenny Lynn}

09/27/2021

So many adoptive parents deal with the painful issue of rejection from their child. A friend shared how often she would rock her son in her arms at night just to have him smack, scratch, and generally push her away. Such a hard experience for a mother. She intuitively understood that she needed to just keep holding him, nightly treating him AS IF he wanted to be held and snuggled.
Over time her son learned to receive and enjoy this nightly routine, and even learned to be tender back, gently stroking his mother's cheek rather than hitting, pushing, or scratching.

My friend knew what her son needed, to be snuggled and loved, but she was dealing with the current reality that because her son was unaccustomed to this normal physical expression of a mother's love, he did not want what she knew he needed. What a wise mother she was to treat him as if he wanted it. In doing so, she gently led him to be the person she knew he would be-- one who freely gives and receives love.

For some this may seem difficult. Is it right to pretend like this? It hurts when your child hits you, and hurts even more deeply when he or she rejects your love day after day. If you are like me, your initial response may be to pull back, to protect yourself emotionally by withholding love and intimacy.
Many of us deal with this very difficult and uncomfortable reality of a child not able to bond, and some of us may also struggle with our own feelings of love and find that our child is not the only one struggling to bond.
I love what Gary Chapman says in his book The Five Love Languages. “Perhaps it would be helpful to distinguish love as a feeling and love as an action. If you claim to have feelings you don’t have, that is hypocritical and such false communication is not the way to build intimate relationships. But if you express an act of love that is designed for the other person’s benefit or pleasure, it is simply a choice. You are not claiming that the action grows out of a deep emotional bonding. You are simply choosing to do something for his benefit.”

Sometimes parenting the adopted or foster child involves loving them as if those tender feelings we desire are the reality. It is sometimes simply a choice to do or say something purely for the benefit of your child--in full expectation that the day will come when the reality will change. {Beth}

Wow. Thank you, God, that you don't leave us wallowing, but you lift us up out of the mud and fill us with your grace an...
09/24/2021

Wow. Thank you, God, that you don't leave us wallowing, but you lift us up out of the mud and fill us with your grace and peace so that we might parent in a way that reflects your perfect love. (Anne-Marie)

2 "I greet you with the grace and peace poured into our lives by God our Father and our Master, Jesus Christ. The God of Glory 3 How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He's the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. 4 Long before he laid down earth's foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. 5 Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) 6 He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son. 7 Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we're a free people - free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds. And not just barely free, either. Abundantly free! 8 He thought of everything, provided for everything we could possibly need, 9 letting us in on the plans he took such delight in making. He set it all out before us in Christ, 10 a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth. 11 It's in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, 12 part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone. 13 It's in Christ that you, once you heard the truth and believed it (this Message of your salvation), found yourselves home free - signed, sealed, and delivered by the Holy Spirit. 14 This signet from God is the first installment on what's coming, a reminder that we'll get everything God has planned for us, a praising and glorious life." Ephesians 1:2-14 MSG



09/22/2021

Do you have a child determined to do things that could or definitely will cause them pain? It's so hard to watch your child keep running back to something that you know is going to end badly.

Recently my one year old learned to squish himself under the baby gate at the top of our stairs and go down. Both impressive and terrifying. Like a homing squirrel, once he learned how, he kept going back to the gate over and over and over to try the thing that is Super dangerous and will likely end with a bad fall. I kept trying to redirect him, block him, and discourage him from the action but failing to draw his determined attention away from the gate and from what I know is not good from him. While this is typical toddler behavior in so many ways, it served as an opportunity to receive a promise from the Lord.

The Lord whispered to me (almost with a chuckle in his voice), "this is so like my children... but not to fear I am far more patient and far more able to breakthrough to them than you are." It felt very much like a promise to tuck away for the years to come.

This small example of "determination for the dangerous" is something many of us have and will continue to see in the future with our children, often propelled by feelings of pain, trauma or turmoil. As we try to redirect and whisper truth to them and it seems like we are failing to get through, God is reminding us of His ability to touch hearts in a way that we as loving parents sometimes can't. His patience never runs out. His Spirit cannot be quelled. Every moment that we begin to feel like a failure is in fact the moment for our kid's Savior to step in and do the miraculous.

Be encouraged, it's not all on you to stop your determined child's bad behavior, you are called to train your child but Jesus is the One who saves, breakthroughs, heals, restores, and guides their hearts towards what is pure, good, lovely, and life-giving. On the days you feel like you are failing, the Lord is pulling up a chair for you to sit on the front row and watch Him do in your child's heart what only He can do. {Jenny Lynn}

09/21/2021

It is when your child is his or her most “unlovable” that your love is most needed and most required.
I often ask God, “What does love look like for this child today?”
Today is a good day to love big!!
{Beth}

09/20/2021

Do you remember the last time you moved into a new house? There is this drive to get everything perfect (or at least looking perfect;), all the right furniture in the right places, all the decor looking like a magazine shot. We want things to be complete, or at least to appear that way.

But with God it is different. He isn’t requiring your family to be the picture of the perfect godly adoptive or foster family that you dreamed of in those early days. As a matter of fact, He seems to be far more comfortable with the long-haul process than we ever knew!

Jesus has got your family covered as far as perfection and completion dear ones.
Let’s put our focus today on transformation and growth rather than on appearances of perfection. And those glaring empty spaces, those ugly pieces of furniture, those messes cluttering your home?—watch how God works those into the life of your family, repurposing them for good. {Beth}

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6630 Bay Cir, Ste A
Norcross, GA
30071

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