Omni Visions Chattanooga TN

Powerful

Love follows the ambulance to the hospital after a psychotic break. Love bandages the scraped knuckles that left holes in the freshly-painted wall. It lets them use up the hot water in the shower after a bad day.

It chases the runaway, forgives the name-caller, fills the pill organizer over and over. Sits in the principal’s office, drives hours for the right specialist, advocates for only the best treatment for the kids that are often viewed as the worst. It sees hope when no one else can.

Love chooses to see the good, and good things are hard. There’s a lot of pain and heartache, sacrifice and fear that comes with wholeheartedly loving a child, and fear often leads us to shy away from giving our selves wholly and selflessly.

But what is love if it’s anything less than unconditional? And what child, regardless of age or diagnosis or behavior or anything else, is unworthy of it?

Tell me, I’ll wait.

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WRAP teams are a way for churches to encourage and help retain our community's valuable kinship and foster families.

Register for this online training, next Thursday, June 8 · 11am - 12pm CDT

The first time I picked up a child from our local DFCS, it was bedtime and they were asleep in a cot in someone’s cubicle. Another child we cared for slept in a hotel with a caseworker she’d just met for two days before they were able to locate a home to take her. Two of my children slept alone for days in a hospital before they were brought to our home. Every single night in our own city, children are sleeping alone, without their parents or familiar caregivers, without a comfortable bed, without a nurturing home environment.

The very children we demand protection for while inside the womb are same ones absolutely no one seems to care about once they’re born. The same women we chastise for considering abortion are often the same ones we refuse to support in raising the babies they kept.

Across our city tonight, babies are sleeping without their mamas or even a home. And very few seem to be bothered enough to notice.

Friends, it’s past time to do better. The Gospel is not passive “thoughts and prayers.” It’s not warm feelings of half-hearted charity. It’s not “maybe one day” or “I could never.” It’s uncomfortable, sacrificial, for-the-long-haul love. It means following through with our bold cry for the sanctity of life with day-in and day-out action. It means laying down our own comforts, desires, and opinions to lift up our hurting neighbors in times of crisis. It means caring that there are children all over our city, state, country, and planet without beds and then actually doing something about it.

You don’t have to be a foster parent to love and support suffering children, but you should do something.

Our NEW Upcoming KEY training for individuals who want to become foster parents! We are starting February 20th! And this class is being conducted during day hours on a quickened schedule. Come join us! Come be the difference. See the Class Schedule below!

This is foster care❤️

The barista told us we had the cutest baby she had ever seen. Which is always a little awkward for us.

These aren’t my babies.

One of these babies lives in our home now and another one of them used to live here and now comes to spend time with us while his Mama works.

But neither of these babies is mine.

Both of these cutie has a Mama who loves them dearly, and I’m just lucky enough to have the privilege to be their right now.

When you say yes in foster care you say yes to kids and their families.

You say yes to support families while their kids are in your home and after their babies come back to them.

I’ve been a Mama to 17 kids. I’ve loved them each as if they were my own. And not a single one of them is mine.

This is foster care.

Food for thought. How powerful!

We won’t give up on you. Some of the worlds most healing, most needed, most life altering words.

I referred to them as ‘Unlucky #14’ when we first met. They smiled politely & I wondered if anyone had told them what they were getting themselves in to; unlike the thirteen families I had lived with before that didn’t last long.

My first week there, I remember kicking a hole in my bedroom wall on purpose to see how mad they would get. & when they didn’t, I asked that they fix it. My foster dad brought me to the hardware store & showed me which aisle to get the putty from. He said he’d help me fix it, but I had to pay the $7 dollars for the supplies. I refused. He drove me home & I moved my dresser in front of the hole. I thought they were being unfair & cheap.

When they found out I stole makeup from the store, my foster mom drove me back up there & walked me in to return all of it & apologize. That was embarrassing. They were jerks.

When I got caught smoking with my friend in my closet, they took the pack of ci******es & the lighter & walked out of my room. I heard them on speaker phone with the caseworker so I started packing up my clothes. & when my foster parents came back in, they gave me a lecture about the dangers of smoking & told me I was couldn’t have friends over for two weeks. I thought they were overbearing & controlling.

I skipped school, I lied, stole some more & I didn’t even feel bad when I saw my foster mom crying in the backyard after I had cussed her out again. I hated her.

Every time I did something wrong, all I wanted was to move out & start my life over again like I had done in every other foster home I lived in—clean slate, where no one knew me. At the time, I felt like this family was holding me captive by not turning in their notice; but My caseworker told me if I left, I would probably end up in a group home for teenage girls which would be even worse. So I stayed.

When I was 18, I moved out to live on my own. I wanted so badly to get out. I told them I’d never speak to them again, but I did need help moving. They did. I thought they were probably happy I was leaving.

Sitting in the car about to finally be on to my new life, I asked my foster mom why they never moved me after I purposely did all of those things to them.

It’s been almost six years & I will never forget the simple answer she gave me in between sips of her coffee.

“We don’t just give up on our kids. So we won’t give up on you.”

She had just said “she won’t”. As in future tense. & the day that I moved out was the day I finally realized I had belonged somewhere.

The hole in my bedroom wall is still there & on occasions my dad will jokingly ask me if I have that $7 to fix it. I haven’t made my mom cry again besides last year when I told her she was going to be a Grammy!

Like many foster youth, I set out to destroy myself & it almost happened. When I couldn’t see my future on the other side of all the trauma I had endured, #14 chose to.


Former foster youth

Wondering how you can make a difference in foster care? Unsure how becoming a foster parent might impact your daily life? Wanting to be a difference maker in one of our nation’s most vulnerable people groups? Come to this free event January 30th at 6:30pm. Register and learn more below 👇

Foster Care Q&A Come learn how to support foster care in our area and what it takes to be a foster parent!

Welcome to OmniVisions Public Page where we get to share upcoming classes, informationals and testimonials about foster care. Here at OmniVisions, we believe that every child deserves a home. We are a therapeutic foster care agency working to make a difference in the lives of foster children. If you have any questions about upcoming events, trainings or how to become a foster parent, reach out! We would love to hear from you. 423-493-8882

It's not too late! Join our foster parent class today! If you have questions reach out, at 423-493-8882!