Stronger from the Storms

When Cheri and her two children moved to Georgia to take care of her father, she had no idea her family would soon be homeless.

Cheri’s father had been diagnosed with diabetes and Stage IV cancer, so she moved in to become his full time caregiver. Unfortunately, his medications and treatments began to change her dad, making him more aggressive, more hostile, more violent. Cheri knew she and her kids couldn’t stay there, but they had nowhere else to go. 

As their environment became more and more unsafe, Cheri made the difficult decision to move herself and her kids out.

Cheri did whatever she could to provide for her family. While they had to live in and out of hotels, jumping from one place to the next, she was at least able to give some kind of shelter. But, especially as the holidays were approaching, she knew they needed help and needed a long-term solution.

She needed a place to call home, and that’s when she found GBCH&FM.

“I applied to the Family Care program and was accepted just before Christmas,” Cheri says. 

She remembers one of her biggest concerns after being accepted into the program was finding a way to provide Christmas gifts to her children. What she was met with was unlike anything she had ever seen before.

“I was told to fill out a Christmas wish list for my children, but didn’t think anything of it,” Cheri recalls. “I expected a gift or two for them, but nothing like what we received.”

“GBCH&FM brought in boxes of gifts for my children, and it brought tears to my eyes. Just total strangers invested in mine and my children’s lives. That took my breath away.”

Cheri began working the steps of the program and taking advantage of the many resources we are able to offer to our mothers and families in Family Care. She explained that a lot of her success came from working with Lucille Anderson, the Family Care Program Coordinator at our Palmetto Campus.

“Mrs. Lucille is a godsend for me. Without her, I would be on the couch, crying my eyes out with a bowl of ice cream,” Cheri laughs. “But she motivated me.”

“She doesn’t put up with excuses because she continues to help you find solutions. She encourages you to dig deep within yourself and to persevere through. I appreciate how she is always there to talk to and seek advice from.” 

Through our Family Care program, we work hard to devote our time and resources to our community and create an environment to set our families up for success, just like Cheri. We connect mothers with resources to help with food expenses and medical care coverage. We host classes and workshops to learn additional skills that can be applied to their care plans as well as their everyday lives, such as cooking and household budgeting.

Cheri took an interest in entrepreneur courses and learned a lot about starting her own business, budgeting, and even gaining the confidence in herself to pursue her own dreams.

“You have to go and do the work to get to where you want to be,” Cheri says. “I have learned that if you are seeking something or information, there are tools, materials, and people out there that can and will help you, just like GBCH&FM did for me.”

Success comes from hard work and determination, but also a firm foundation built on Christ. Along with workshops and skill building, we love encouraging our families through devotionals and Bible studies, and work to connect them with local churches. 

“I have always been a believer, but I was trying to get my life together without God, and that wasn’t working,” Cheri shares. “I came to GBCH&FM and was able to find God and myself during this whole process.”

“My life saying now is, ‘I need water to help these flowers grow,’ because I know now that when I go through a storm, I will come out stronger on the other side because of all that water.”

Your support makes stories like Cheri’s possible. Thank you for giving children and families a place to call home. You can learn more about our Family Care program at www.GeorgiaChildren.org/Family-Care.