This is going to be very short. It's one of those too-hot-outside-and-inside-to-do-anything kind of nights, but I wanted to make sure this got acknowledged in this little space of mine.
I work at a family homeless shelter. After 10 years of different rounds of staff working to grow this place into what it is now (it's really great), we have officially outgrown our teeny tiny closet of a shared church office and are moving into a big, brand new, beautiful place a few blocks away. With that, comes a lot of packing and going through tons and tons of old papers, boxes, and so on.
My boss - our Executive Director who has been with the shelter since the beginning - was going through some old files when she stumbled upon this sweet piece of paper:
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| "McKala Grace. Born 5:40 AM Sunday 3/9/03 in the Goose Hollow Shelter lounge - on the couch!" ("Goose Hollow Shelter" is the name of the shelter that our families sleep in at night.) |
It's hard to work in a shelter - especially one that focuses its work on children experiencing homelessness - but this sweet piece of paper served as such a good reminder to me that, although these families don't have a house yet, many have indeed found a home here.
No one wants to be living in a homeless shelter, especially with your kids at your side, and although at times it may seem like a place where your life is falling apart, just like that, life can start again.
