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“Mom, are you coming?!” my youngest daughter wailed, “Come on! We’re ready to FREE it!” In order to understand what is taking place, let me rewind to about eight weeks ago.
It was a normal Sunday afternoon and the family was outside working in the yard like we do twice a month. As we were weeding the flower beds, our cat, Rasputin, appeared from around the corner, carrying something that was moving in his mouth. My daughters, knowing that the little creature was facing an untimely death, started to scream at Rasputin. Rasputin immediately dropped the creature from his mouth and ran the opposite direction. My youngest daughter had made it to the wiggling animal first and exclaimed “Oh Mama, it’s a baby bird!” As I approached, I could tell that the bird appeared to be in very bad shape. “Mama, you have to help the little guy!” Looking first at the little shivering mess of feathers, then at the two pleading faces before me, I caught myself saying ”Go get a towel and a box. We’ll take it to the ER vet down the road.”
On Friday, April 29th, 2016, Heartland Prodigy had our first annual Showcase. Over 60 of our kids, from both of our sites in Eloise and Florence Villa, were present along with their families. We are known for our diversity, serving Hispanic, African American, Caucasian, and Asian families; so it was a beautiful night celebrating one of our favorite traits, Unity in Diversity! As a community, we celebrated our children’s creative accomplishments in Mixed Media, Ceramics, Acting, Dancing, and Keyboards.
Now that April Child Abuse Prevention Month has come to a close, we wanted to first and foremost thank our entire community for their support of the Pinwheels for Prevention® Campaign here locally. Hundreds of individuals wore their pinwheel lapel pins, displayed the blue and silver pinwheel, distributed parent resource guides, displayed signage and bulletin boards, and shared the message about the importance of child abuse prevention. Many of our community leaders, Mayors, and Commissioners proclaimed April as Child Abuse Prevention Month as well.
Ashley Beckwith was a constant source of information and support during the two years and five months of our adoption journey. My husband and I completed the Adoption 101 (now MAPS) class in 2012. Ashley stayed in touch and available to us through the adoption newsletter and checking in via email. She was present at match meetings and adoption events. We finalized our adoption a month ago. I am finally a mother and I feel so thankful and blessed to have been able to work with Ashley through this process. Ashley, you are so dedicated and positive. It was a pleasure to work with you.
Mary Thomson-Marin Adoptive Parent