As we are fully emersed in another Christmas season my heart is torn.  It has been a very tough year (few years) for our family financially (very tough!) but through it all we have had each other and the Lord's presence with us which has sustained us when it seemed as though everything else around us was falling apart.  This time of struggle has only made our hearts more compassionate toward those children and teens out there that not only don't have financial support, but no family and are unaware of the love of God that is there for them.  I cannot imagine how it must feel to an 18 year old, who was either raised in the foster care system (shuffled from house to house or in residential care) or the one who had a family that neglected, abused or left them with no support to face another Christmas alone. 

Once a child "ages-out" of the foster care system many are left on their own with little or no resources for home, family or financial support.  Our dream is to make a place that they can come to and find shelter, provision and love.  We ache to see Restoration Ranch open and then many other homes like it emerge throughout Northern California and beyond.  Though our personal resources have been depleted, we still have one another...a family to lean on and to comfort one another.  We still have a faithful God who we know will not leave us nor forsake us.  We long to put the lonely in families, to restore the hearts of the children to fathers, to give shelter to the cold and to feed the hungry.  We do that to the best of our ability even now in the midst of our own need but our hearts are heavy to reach so many more.  We dream of the day that we can give a Christmas gift of a home and family to a teen that feels lost and alone. 

Please pray along with us that our dream, "God's dream" and these teens dreams will come true.  Pray for them this Christmas season and pray for us...for a release of all that is needed to move forward with this vision.  Also, go to our links page and pray for and support our partners (Teen Project and Shores of Grace) as they reach out to the broken. 

Merry Christmas to you and your families.  May God's love and presence be very near to you throughout the season and as you enter the new year.