This has been in the works for a while but we now have most of the details worked out and a start date so it's time to officially announce! On March 1st, Courage Home will split off financially from the rest of SCH. We are going to be the pilot group to begin decentralizing each of the buildings to make them self-sufficient, and put the running of each home in the hands of the foster moms.
I am so excited to tell you about this incredible new opportunity, but first I should introduce Courage Home.
Courage Home is made up of 3 smaller "homes" or foster families.
On the ground floor, "Courage Green," is foster mom KayLynn and her 7 toddlers: Chelsea, Alicia, Zahra, Riley, Dahlia, Ariana, and Gabe.
On the first floor, "Courage Teal," is foster mom Kourtney and her 12: Aiden, Michael, Max, Aaron, Phil, Elijah, Aloe, Nicky, Owen, Andrew, Isaiah, and Justin.
On the top floor, "Courage Purple" is Nikki, me, and our 13: Charlotte, Molly, Louise, Selah, Chloe, Promise, Theo, Jasmine, Lily, Dinah, Nolan, Cedar, and Brianna.
I am so excited to tell you about this incredible new opportunity, but first I should introduce Courage Home.
Courage Home is made up of 3 smaller "homes" or foster families.
On the ground floor, "Courage Green," is foster mom KayLynn and her 7 toddlers: Chelsea, Alicia, Zahra, Riley, Dahlia, Ariana, and Gabe.
On the first floor, "Courage Teal," is foster mom Kourtney and her 12: Aiden, Michael, Max, Aaron, Phil, Elijah, Aloe, Nicky, Owen, Andrew, Isaiah, and Justin.
On the top floor, "Courage Purple" is Nikki, me, and our 13: Charlotte, Molly, Louise, Selah, Chloe, Promise, Theo, Jasmine, Lily, Dinah, Nolan, Cedar, and Brianna.
KayLynn, Kourtney, Nikki, and I will be taking over the running of Courage Home completely. It is a huge responsibility, but will also open up so many amazing opportunities for our kids!
Our finances will be split from the rest of SCH which will protect the money that is raised for these kids specifically. What comes to Courage Home for Courage Home kids, will stay in Courage Home. It also means anything extra that comes in past the sponsorship of each child can be used for implementing other programs for our kids, hiring more therapists, etc. and not go into the general fund to cover the expenses of the unsponsored children in other homes.
In other words, as SCH continues to grow and take in more kids who are not yet sponsored, Courage Home can remain financially stable and we can continue to provide more and more services for our kids.
We are also beginning to find ways to save money that wouldn't be as sustainable on the larger scale but are completely manageable on the small scale in each of our homes. Nikki and I have started using cloth diapers for our youngest 7 kids who aren't potty trained and all 3 homes have been working hard getting the children who can be potty trained out of diapers. Being able to buy diapers for around 12 less children every month is saving a huge amount of money! All that money we are able to save can now go towards other things for our kids and homes.
We also have dreams to purchase our own car which would cost a larger amount to begin with but in the long run would save us an incredible amount of money in auto fares every day. With this change, we can have the room to make a small investment that would pay itself off in just a few months and be easily sustainable for the future.
We would also love to hire more specialists and teachers, like a speech therapist and someone with experience to work with our blind children.
We have so many dreams to provide more for our kids and this will open the doors for that financially.
First though, we need to get the basics covered. We created a new budget into which we added hiring a second physiotherapist (which is very needed), school fees for the kids who will be starting next school year, and some to set aside each month for medical emergencies, on top of our current budget. Because living expenses are so high in Hyderabad, once all of our Courage kids are fully sponsored, we will still need another $3000/month to make ends meet. And there are still a lot of kids who aren't even fully sponsored.
Now that we are responsible for running the home, that also means we are responsible for finding people who share our vision to come alongside us to make sure the home has enough funding to run.
What is that vision? Well let me tell you!
When I first came to SCH in the summer of 2013, what I saw isn't what made me come back. It wasn't what SCH was that made me want to be a part of it. It was the vision for what SCH could be that I fell in love with. I wanted to be a part of the dream Sarah had for the kind of life we could give these kids.
Now don't get me wrong. What SCH was then was still better for the kids than where they were before. I was blessed to be a small part of it then. But that isn't what captured me.
What made me want to come back was the fact that better wasn't good enough for Sarah. She had dreams for the very best for these kids. She had dreams of giving them everything they deserve as sons and daughters of the King, holding nothing back. That was something I wanted to be a part of!
In the past year and a half, I have gotten to see those dreams begin to be a reality and it has been the most incredible ride!
When I arrived at SCH in June of 2013, there was one large home and two smaller homes in Ongole. There were a little over 100 kids and one foster mom.
By the time I left at the end of July, there were two beautiful new buildings with 6 apartments each and the kids had just started moving in. Two more foster moms had arrived and there were a few more on the way. Dreams were beginning to take shape and I had to come back and be a part of it!
When I arrived back in India to foster in December of 2013, all the kids were settled in their new, smaller, foster sized homes. Two more smaller homes had opened as well. There were six other foster moms and even more coming!
I have now been living here for a little over a year and the change that SCH has seen in that time is staggering!
By next month we will have opened our fourth building in Hyderabad, in addition to our two large homes in Ongole, and have a grand total of 14 foster parents! We also have well over 150 children in our care now!
The kids are thriving in the foster homes and we have seen so much progress in each of them. We still aren't where we would like to be, but we are so much closer.
Beginning to split off the buildings and decentralizing the finances and burdens of fundraising is the next step to allow SCH to continue to expand while still continuing to improve the quality of life for each child. We don't just want them to live good lives. We want them to live the very best lives they can live.
Running a home like this is expensive. But we believe these kids are worth it and we won't hold back any good thing from them because of cost.
We're believing in a lot for these kids. And we believe that God will provide the funds to make it possible because the dreams we have for our kids are His dreams for every one of His children.
So how about you? Do you think these kids are worth it? Do you believe in the same vision for them that I do?
If you answered yes to one or both of those questions, I have great news for you!
You can be a part of it!
How?
I'm so glad you asked! ;)
We are in need of people to support Courage Home financially. Our goal is to be fully sponsored by March 1st and we're almost out of time!
We have so many children who are still not fully sponsored. You can be the one to make sure their daily needs are met - from good food and supplements, to diapers, to ayahs to care for them. Here are the last three of my children needing sponsors, or you can click on the names at the top of this post to be taken to the sponsorship page of any of the other Courage children God has put on your heart.
Chloe
Selah
Brianna
Can't decide? You can also choose to sponsor the entire home monthly or give a one time gift to help offset the extra costs until we are fully sponsored by visiting our Courage Home page here.
Also, please share this with your friends and family and anyone else who may want to be a part of changing the lives of some of the most incredible kids in the world. Our dreams are big and we need a team to help us make them a reality. When I post, it only reaches the same people in my personal circle. To get the word out, I need your help. Please share and make the Courage kids' voices heard!
Please keep us all in prayer as we pilot this new program - that it would create more opportunities for the kids and be a huge step forward towards our dreams for them, and eventually the rest of SCH.
Thank you for reading and for your heart to be a part of the wonderful things God is doing in Courage Home! We are so excited for you to join the family!
Our finances will be split from the rest of SCH which will protect the money that is raised for these kids specifically. What comes to Courage Home for Courage Home kids, will stay in Courage Home. It also means anything extra that comes in past the sponsorship of each child can be used for implementing other programs for our kids, hiring more therapists, etc. and not go into the general fund to cover the expenses of the unsponsored children in other homes.
In other words, as SCH continues to grow and take in more kids who are not yet sponsored, Courage Home can remain financially stable and we can continue to provide more and more services for our kids.
We are also beginning to find ways to save money that wouldn't be as sustainable on the larger scale but are completely manageable on the small scale in each of our homes. Nikki and I have started using cloth diapers for our youngest 7 kids who aren't potty trained and all 3 homes have been working hard getting the children who can be potty trained out of diapers. Being able to buy diapers for around 12 less children every month is saving a huge amount of money! All that money we are able to save can now go towards other things for our kids and homes.
We also have dreams to purchase our own car which would cost a larger amount to begin with but in the long run would save us an incredible amount of money in auto fares every day. With this change, we can have the room to make a small investment that would pay itself off in just a few months and be easily sustainable for the future.
We would also love to hire more specialists and teachers, like a speech therapist and someone with experience to work with our blind children.
We have so many dreams to provide more for our kids and this will open the doors for that financially.
First though, we need to get the basics covered. We created a new budget into which we added hiring a second physiotherapist (which is very needed), school fees for the kids who will be starting next school year, and some to set aside each month for medical emergencies, on top of our current budget. Because living expenses are so high in Hyderabad, once all of our Courage kids are fully sponsored, we will still need another $3000/month to make ends meet. And there are still a lot of kids who aren't even fully sponsored.
Now that we are responsible for running the home, that also means we are responsible for finding people who share our vision to come alongside us to make sure the home has enough funding to run.
What is that vision? Well let me tell you!
When I first came to SCH in the summer of 2013, what I saw isn't what made me come back. It wasn't what SCH was that made me want to be a part of it. It was the vision for what SCH could be that I fell in love with. I wanted to be a part of the dream Sarah had for the kind of life we could give these kids.
Now don't get me wrong. What SCH was then was still better for the kids than where they were before. I was blessed to be a small part of it then. But that isn't what captured me.
What made me want to come back was the fact that better wasn't good enough for Sarah. She had dreams for the very best for these kids. She had dreams of giving them everything they deserve as sons and daughters of the King, holding nothing back. That was something I wanted to be a part of!
In the past year and a half, I have gotten to see those dreams begin to be a reality and it has been the most incredible ride!
When I arrived at SCH in June of 2013, there was one large home and two smaller homes in Ongole. There were a little over 100 kids and one foster mom.
By the time I left at the end of July, there were two beautiful new buildings with 6 apartments each and the kids had just started moving in. Two more foster moms had arrived and there were a few more on the way. Dreams were beginning to take shape and I had to come back and be a part of it!
When I arrived back in India to foster in December of 2013, all the kids were settled in their new, smaller, foster sized homes. Two more smaller homes had opened as well. There were six other foster moms and even more coming!
I have now been living here for a little over a year and the change that SCH has seen in that time is staggering!
By next month we will have opened our fourth building in Hyderabad, in addition to our two large homes in Ongole, and have a grand total of 14 foster parents! We also have well over 150 children in our care now!
The kids are thriving in the foster homes and we have seen so much progress in each of them. We still aren't where we would like to be, but we are so much closer.
Beginning to split off the buildings and decentralizing the finances and burdens of fundraising is the next step to allow SCH to continue to expand while still continuing to improve the quality of life for each child. We don't just want them to live good lives. We want them to live the very best lives they can live.
Running a home like this is expensive. But we believe these kids are worth it and we won't hold back any good thing from them because of cost.
We're believing in a lot for these kids. And we believe that God will provide the funds to make it possible because the dreams we have for our kids are His dreams for every one of His children.
So how about you? Do you think these kids are worth it? Do you believe in the same vision for them that I do?
If you answered yes to one or both of those questions, I have great news for you!
You can be a part of it!
How?
I'm so glad you asked! ;)
We are in need of people to support Courage Home financially. Our goal is to be fully sponsored by March 1st and we're almost out of time!
We have so many children who are still not fully sponsored. You can be the one to make sure their daily needs are met - from good food and supplements, to diapers, to ayahs to care for them. Here are the last three of my children needing sponsors, or you can click on the names at the top of this post to be taken to the sponsorship page of any of the other Courage children God has put on your heart.
Chloe
Selah
Brianna
Can't decide? You can also choose to sponsor the entire home monthly or give a one time gift to help offset the extra costs until we are fully sponsored by visiting our Courage Home page here.
Also, please share this with your friends and family and anyone else who may want to be a part of changing the lives of some of the most incredible kids in the world. Our dreams are big and we need a team to help us make them a reality. When I post, it only reaches the same people in my personal circle. To get the word out, I need your help. Please share and make the Courage kids' voices heard!
Please keep us all in prayer as we pilot this new program - that it would create more opportunities for the kids and be a huge step forward towards our dreams for them, and eventually the rest of SCH.
Thank you for reading and for your heart to be a part of the wonderful things God is doing in Courage Home! We are so excited for you to join the family!
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