The Park Terrace Swimming and Tennis Club in Land Park (Sacramento) dedicated their annual toy drive to the children being served by Agape Villages Foster Family Agency. From December 1 to December 18th owners and friends of the club dropped off unwrapped gifts for children ages 0-18 and celebrated with a toy pick up and holiday party on December 18th. Two local Girl Scout troops donated all their extra cookie funds and went out and shopped for dozens of gifts. Park Terrace was able to collect and donate over 200 toys and over $200 worth of gift cards.
Category: Stories
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Kids Bike Lane with the annual Big Bike Build
Kids Bike Lane assembled and distributed 500 bikes for the annual Big Bike Build. Agape Villages was invited to participate. We were blessed with 31 bikes ranging from 20″ to 26″.
We want to thank Dennis Elchesen, Alice Klingman and Beth Miller for their hard work.
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Lor Family Donation
Purah Lor, the daughter of PC and Goa Lor wanted to donate toys to kids in need, so they brought in brand new toys for the kids. We are so thankful for the kindness of local families like this who help provide resources to kids in foster care through Agape!
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Family Builders Shared Toys
Family Builders is a nonprofit foster family and adoption agency dedicated to building permanent, loving and committed families for children and youth in foster care. They generously shared the gifts they received this holiday season with Agape families. We received some wonderful toys and coloring books.
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Together We Rise Bike Donation
On November 4, 2022 Together We Rise, working with Goodera, built, tested, and donated 21 brand new, fully assembled bikes in various sizes with coordinating helmets. 16″ bikes – for youth 3-6 years old with removable training wheels, 20″ bikes – for youth 7-10 years old, 26″ bikes for youth and teens 12-18+ years old.
Thank you so much for the thoughtful gifts and the time and effort to put it all together!
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Twin Boys
We got a call for two twin boys. They were born prematurely to a mother who tested positive for drugs. Both were in the NICU for weeks before being placed with a loving Agape family. Yes, the boys had typical issues due to the drug use of their mother including being low birth weight, but our resource parents nurtured them through this.
As of 6 months of age, the boys are meeting their age appropriate developmental milestones. They are happy boys and have grown a lot!
The boys’ birth mother has since dropped out of touch. It’s possible parental rights will be severed. If that happens, our resource family would love to adopt the kids. We can’t be sure what the future holds, but we are sure the kids are well cared for with us!
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Amazing Former Foster Youths
We have had a number of foster youths that have gone on to become amazing adults. We are thankful for the many success stories that Agape has been part of, like Anjru De Leon.
Anjru is a student at San Joaquin Delta College. He is student body Vice President. Alongside law and politics, he enjoys vigorous physical activities such as volleyball and cross country running. He is already involved in helping others and plans to continue that into the future. We’re very proud of you, Anjru.
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Hair Care and Support From Agape Staff
From an Agape employee wanting to share a story:
I am a licensed cosmetologist, and recently reminded the social workers that if they have any families who need help with their foster/adopt children’s hair that I would be willing to meet with the families and give them some tips on doing the children’s hair. Soon after, Social Worker Brittany Barnes was approached by one of her families who was unsure of how to care for and style her African American children’s hair.
Brittany contacted me and I then reached out to the family to schedule when I could come to the home to go over hair care and some styles with the resource mom. I came to the home with specialty products like shampoo, conditioner, leave in-conditioners, and gels for the family since, in my experience, most people do not realize that black hair needs products that are made for black hair.
I then spent about 2.5 hours in the resource home walking the mom through how to wash, care for and style her foster daughters hair. The resource mom was attentive and eager to jump in and try all the new things that I was suggesting. It was obvious that the child’s cultural needs, which includes hair care, were important to this resource family and that it was amazing to see that they had no hesitation in making sure that the child’s hair was being properly cared for.
The resource mother even shared with me that she asked the biological mother if she could show her how to do a style the girls hair during one of the visits. I was able to show her the proper way and frequency for washing the children’s hair, how to maintain and care for their hair on a regular basis and some simple styles that she can do herself.
It was a great experience and so nice to see the resource mom’s motivation and commitment to the care of her foster children.
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Examine Our Hearts
Recently I have been having a few abnormalities with my heart. It has caused me to have less energy, some dizziness, and rapid heart beats. To help diagnose the best course of action to take, my doctor has ordered me to wear a heart monitor for a few weeks. It started me thinking about the “hearts” and motivations of people.
Sometimes when our hearts and minds aren’t functioning properly, our performance and actions are affected. Periodically we all need to examine our “hearts” to check to see if we are focusing too much on ourselves or if we are using our talents, time, and finances to help others.
If you would like to share the good things you’ve been blessed with, I just happen to know some disadvantaged little ones you could help. So, if your “heart monitor” is telling you to reach out more to others, call Agape today. You will feel so healthy if you do.
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Helping A Little Girl Who Is Hurting
Grace, a 6 year old girl, has had a difficult life so far. Prior to coming to Agape Villages, she was in foster care and subsequently reunified with her mother early last year.
Unfortunately, her mother continued struggling with a substance abuse problem and was unable to follow the safety plan required for caring for Grace. Her father was out of the home and was a registered sex offender.
Grace was then placed in foster care with Agape Villages with one of our single parent resource families. At first, Grace was very quiet, cried a lot (especially to see her mother), and would eat very little. Agape Social Worker, Courtney McAlister, was able to arrange counseling ser- vices for Grace to help with her adjustments. We are pleased to report that after several months, Grace is doing much better. She is happy, loves her foster mother whom she calls “Grandma,” and is gaining weight.
We continue to work with the referring County Department of Social Services as efforts are made to work out a permanency plan for Grace.