Team Effort Keeps One Young Family Together

When Dani asked Safe Families to care for her two children, she was frightened and fragile but determined to get her life together. Just 22 years old, she had endured months of abuse from a boyfriend, was living in a shelter and unemployed. Dani wondered if we could look after her girls for just a month — maybe more.

Two families stepped up to share the assignment. Kristin Martin and her family took the toddler, Julina, and Christine Wright and her family took care of Adella, age three. “We fell in love with Julina right away — she was the sweetest, cutest thing!” says Kristin. “She became part of our family very quickly.”

Christine and her husband were similarly smitten with Adella. “Jim played a game called ‘catch you’ with Adella, and there was nothing she liked better than being ‘caught’ in a big bear hug,” Christine says. “She loved to sing and sit in laps while we read books to her. We enjoyed every day with her.”

The one-month placement turned into two, then three. Dani moved out of the shelter to live with a friend and found employment as a nurse’s aide. Finally, she was ready to bring her children home.

Saying goodbye to the girls was heart-wrenching for the Martins and Wrights, but they knew it was for the best. “We get attached to these kids, and you don’t sleep well the first night without them,” Christine says. “But as my husband says, that’s the nature of the business. The day after Adella left, I got my haircut, cleaned the house — and sent Safe Families an email to say that we’re ready for another child.”

That’s the Spirit!