Snapshots of Elder Level Maturity

Catherine Curtis, our HCI Community Coordinator sat down with Jewell B., one of our community members operating from elder level maturity. Below are some "snapshots" from Catherine and Jewell's conversation.

Several years ago, my husband and I had the opportunity to spend extra time over several months with our grandchildren. This gave us precious bonding times together. The grandchildren are now doing well in school so our contact with them is quite limited (they live in another state from where we live). But on Richard’s 80th zoom birthday party this year their faces reflected much joy and delight to be together virtually!
 
Last October we got involved as a host family for Safe Families. A mom needed a place for her two-year-old and one-year-old, and we thought it would be a three week stay with us. It turned into 4 ½ months, and the children only saw their mother twice in that time. The amazing things that God did during that time, because of what we knew about a child’s needs [from Life Model] was so beautiful and life giving. The little girl could not even stand at eleven months of age. She had no hip strength at all and was and wearing 6-9 month clothing. And by the time she left us, she was walking, talking, and knew the letters of the alphabet. She was jabbering non-stop. Her brother who was on the autism spectrum had regular zoom calls with early childhood intervention. They were amazed to see him begin to make eye contact with us and begin some interactive play. When mom had housing for them, we still cared for them for 10 weekends while Mom worked 30 hours. The children loved being with us.

Our second assignment with Safe Families was to support a mom in a high-risk pregnancy by caring for her children ages 5 and 2 during her prenatal appointments. We enjoyed having them in our home for a few meals, playtime, and warm conversations. When Mom secured Section 8 housing, her mother became more involved to support them, so our services were no longer needed. We rejoiced to learn the new baby arrived safely about 32 weeks. Since our Adult Bible Fellowship helped provide material things to set up her apartment, it was clear God left this mom with many practical reminders of His love for their family. Truly God is a generous giver!

Our current adventure is coming alongside a doctor and his wife in our Sunday School class who adopted six children. They need help one morning a week to watch the three youngest while they home-school the older three children. So, we agreed to spend time with those children, thinking this will be a long-term ongoing relationship. We think that there will be many interesting dynamics arise in this family as time goes on.