Becky* and her husband were empty nesters, looking forward to a new stage of life with just the two of them in the home.
But then her five grandchildren were removed from their home and needed a place to stay.
“I was shocked,” Becky said.
She’d recently had surgery and was navigating other health challenges. She started wondering, “How am I going to take care of these kids?”
Despite the challenges, Becky decided foster care wasn’t an option for her grandchildren.
“I was told if they were to be placed [in foster care] they would probably have to be split up, and I couldn’t do that,” she explained.
So Becky and her husband made a choice. The home of empty nesters would be filled with little ones again!
Amid the chaos of adjusting to the new normal, Becky heard about Atlas Alliance.
“I was lost. I was all over the place. I was struggling myself,” she said. “I needed help.”
That’s where Atlas Alliance met her. What’s blessed Becky the most is the parent education programs.
Even though she’s raised her own children, she still needed guidance, especially for one of the children who has autism spectrum disorder and requires additional support through school.
Through the training sessions, she’s learning when to be firmer and when to soften her parenting style.
“[I love] just meeting up and talking with other people who are going through the same thing I’m going through. [It’s hard] to have a social life, so being able to meet up, even though I can’t go in person, helps.”
Having five young children in her home is hard, and Becky and her husband don’t have the energy they used to. Still, they know they’re right where God wants them to be.
“I know a lot of people would say, ‘I can’t do it.’ But I’ll tell you this: God puts no more on us than we can bear. So I feel like I wouldn’t be in this position if He didn’t know I could do it.”
If you ask Becky what she’s learned since welcoming her grandchildren, she’d tell you she’s learned more resilience. And all the hard work in this new season is worth it because it’s all for the little ones she loves so much!
“They have been through so much at a young age. I want to make sure whatever they haven’t received in the past, they receive now from me,” she said.
“I definitely didn’t plan this, but I wouldn’t want it any other way. It was in God’s plan.”
*name changed to protect privacy of client
