Dear Future Friends,
A Place Called Home was created to answer the cries of hopeless kids. To be a voice for America’s Orphans, those kids still waiting for someone to choose them, to love them, to spend holidays with them, those kids who dream of having a Mom and Dad to take care of them, parents that are there for them when they are hurting, parents that won’t let them down and break promises, but who encourage them, nurture them, teach them, show them the true hope that being in a family and learning about the love of our Father in Heaven brings. A Place Called Home was also created to encourage and support those other families called by God that take on the wonderful blessing of caring for His beautiful kids in need.
Steve and Steph Whyte have not only taken their passion for kids in need to start this beautiful ministry called A Place Called Home, but they themselves along with their 3 biological kids, have made it their own personal mission to help 20 of these orphans. So far God has blessed them with 6 of these children that they have adopted out of the foster care system. They are currently pursuing the adoption of a sibling group of 3 children which will bring their total up to 12. Each of these children were said to have been “unadoptable” to the world’s standards, they each had different issues from bedwetting to attention problems, to diagnosis’s of severe mental issues due to neglect, abandonment, and abuse. The kids had been abused in one shape or another by FOSTER PARENTS, not just the families they had been born into. These people were supposed to care for them, supposed to make it ok when things were going so wrong in the families they were born into, but instead they put these children through mental abuse, severe physical abuse (one daughter was even beaten and locked in a woodshed at 5 yrs old), and even sexual abuse. They had no one to trust, no one on their side, no one they could turn to. They had been taken away from the only families they knew, though these were not good situations, they were normal to them and each assumed every other family was like there’s. Some of the children were on medications to try to help them numb the issues they had, however, none of them had ever been taught how to cope with the things they had gone through which was the cause of why they acted out. But yet even through all of this they were being rejected again by a family who they were living with but chose not to adopt them. The families may have had legitimate reasons for not keeping them in their families forever, but to a child, it was just another loss.
But see, the good news is that there was a family who did not care about what their labels said. They did not care about their behaviors, or the fact they were on meds. The only thing this family cared about was that they were called to love the kids who needed love, the kids who did not have a family to spend Christmas with, and the kids who no one seemed to want. This family opened their hearts and home and showed the love of God to these precious gifts. The success stories are so beautiful. The miracle of what love is and how it heals the wounds of not being loved is unlike anything we have seen. To watch hopeless eyes like charcoal transform into beautiful sparkling diamonds full of hope is the most amazing thing anyone could ever experience.
One example of the hope that was offered to a child by A Place Called Home would be the story of Allyson. Allyson was living in Biloxi, MS when Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005. It was on August 29th and it was her 9th birthday. Allyson, her mother, her brother, and an older sister evacuated from MS to AL to stay safe from the hurricane. Allyson’s mother had been working at the Waffle House and had met a couple from AL when they would come and gamble. So when she was in need she contacted them for shelter with her kids. Allyson’s dad was in jail again for shoplifting and drugs, so he was not with them. They arrived in AL and stayed with this couple for a few weeks. When the degree of devastation was realized and there was no way for them to go home, the kids were enrolled in school. A couple weeks into being in school every day, Allyson came home to find out that her mother had left and had no intention on coming back. She had a history of drug use and the needs to be back in her old lifestyle made her abandon her kids. Allyson was devastated. She was used to taking care of her younger brother and she tried to hold it all together for him. Over the next weeks this couple started punishing Allyson by hanging (yes hanging) her from a clothes line, tying her to a tree, not allowing her to eat, and full beatings that created black bruises up and down her back. All because she was not coping with the abandonment, not coping with being left with strangers who did not know how to love her through her behavior, she did not know how not to be a mommy to her brother. She had to be his protector and caretaker since he was born due to the drug use of her mom. Yes, she was only 9, but was made to be grown up far beyond her years due to a mom and dad who did not meet her needs the way they were supposed to. The older sister ran away, due to the situation, and wound up back with her mom and on drugs at the age of 15.
Allyson and her brother were given to a young newlywed couple who wanted to rescue them from the abuse. Allyson was still not coping well with all the change and abandonment and she was place in a mental hospital 3 days before Christmas. She was put on strong meds to try to change her behavior and sent back to live with the couple who had her brother after about 3 months. She still did not meet the criteria of what a daughter should be like to this family and they again put her back in the mental hospital. This only made the problems worse for Ally. She was molested by other patients, bitten, beat up, and even put in constraints. She was there for another 3 months and put on 3 of the strongest Anti- Psychotic drugs on the market at the same time. Things seemed to go ok, but again due to the fact that she had issues left to deal with and they had no idea how to help her, they put her back in one final time for 6 months. When she was doing well, she went back to the couple, however, after only 2 months, they decided she was not for them and they put her in foster care. She lived in a wonderful foster home for 8 months as they helped her with coping skills and in school. They were not able to adopt her and turned to the Whyte’s to see if she was their “Forever Daughter”. She was still on the meds, but was doing really well. She still had a relationship with her brother and got to see him every couple weeks. The Whyte’s met her and knew immediately that she was created by God for them to love forever.
Ally came to the Whyte’s and within 2 months time was off ALL 3 meds. How?? How could she not need these strong meds that these professionals had put her on for so many years? How could she be functioning in a home without her brother, without her birth family, without the need to be in a mental hospital or on meds? Could the answer be because she was loved unconditionally, she was taught the way to cope with loss and deal with her emotions, she was given security, she was given dreams, and she was given a family??? Those would definitely be true. But the real answer would be she was given true HOPE. Hope in knowing that she has a Savior, hope that she was created for a plan and a purpose, hope that she is accepted and loved just because she is alive. She just needed someone to believe in her, to tell her it was not her fault that her mother left, that it was not her fault her brother was not being cared for by her, that everything was going to be ok.
You see, God calls us all to “care for the orphan’s and widows in their time of need” (James 1:27). The Whyte’s have embraced this call for their family. They believe everyone can make a difference if we just work together. Some of you may not have been called to open your hearts and home to a child who otherwise would not have a family. But do you have other things you can offer a family that has been called and gives their life to these kids? Do you have time to pray for them? Do you have time to encourage them? Do you have a way to financially bless them? Do you have a heart to give gifts to the kids that have never truly had anything? Do you have abilities to mentor, encourage, or help kids in their studies?
A Place Called Home has the need of expanding the current home, which houses 9 children, to be able to hold more than 20 children. The plans are in the making for a large children’s bedroom wing with bathrooms, family room, and large laundry room that will be added to the existing house along with some renovations of the current kitchen to expand and make room for commercial size appliances. There will be expansion of the dining area to seat more than the 16 it currently can hold. There are also plans to make a larger classroom, an outdoor living area, and update the current bathrooms. There is also a piece of property (5 acres) attached to the current 5 acres the home sits on that is desired to be purchased to help provide more safety for the children and more space for the horses that A Place Called Home uses for therapy to help heal the hearts of the kids. There is an existing structure that will be made into a barn and tack shed. A Place Called Home is also in dire need of a reliable bus that will hold 30+ passengers with a co-pilot seat. The small bus they currently use is over 20 yrs old and is having some mechanical issues. Along with the mechanical issues, while going down the road not too long ago, the door few open and scattered glass all over the bus and the road, none of the children were hurt, just shaken. Also, it only holds 15 passengers and is not large enough to transport all the children we will be helping.
Today, Allyson is a beautiful, 14 year old, girl whose love for life is contagious. Not only has she learned to cope with all that life brings her, she has become the most loving person, she loves hugging everyone she comes in contact with, even strangers. She loves to cook, read, ride her horse, and spend time telling others about God. She has no emotional problems and God has even healed her of tone deafness in both ears for which she needed hearing aids. She loves to sing and write her own songs on the piano. Sadly, Ally has not seen her brother in over a year and a half due to the choice of the family that has him. She has worked through her abandonment issues they caused her and truly trusts that one day God will restore the relationship with him. She dreams of helping people. However God will use her. She is the truth of what HOPE, LOVE, PEACE and a place to call HOME can give to a child.
Will you help? Will you make a difference in a child who was like Allyson? Together we can be world changers. Together we can answer the call to give these precious orphans in America a chance to know what love is, a chance to know what true hope is and a chance to know what it is like to be a part of a family. It is their dream to just belong. Thank you for doing your part. You are ANGELS to these kids!!
In Christ LOVE and the HOPE He brings,
A Place Called Home Ministries
P.O Box 284 Elmore, AL 36025
www.apchm.org
334-414-9345
Please forward this letter to everyone you know. Together we can change the World!!
