Will you join me?

I have recently made the huge move to Austin, TX! I was given the most incredible opportunity to be the Program Director and Foster Parent for a pilot program, Legacy House.

 

Legacy House provides young women transitioning out of foster care a safe home environment where they are supported physically, emotionally and spiritually, with the hope they will achieve sustainable, personal, academic, and independent living goals. These young women will work towards completing high school, moving on to college or a technical school, employment and then into safe, sustainable independent housing.

Empowering young women to unlock their own life legacies

 

They moved me here and I have hit the ground running since March 16^th! I have been working closely with my Board Chairwomen to get this program off the ground. These past two months have been filled with developing mission, vision, logo, program goals and objectives, program manuals, website, strategic planning, meeting possible girls, becoming a licensed foster parent, setting up the home, etc. I am thrilled to be a part of structuring this new, one of a kind, unique program for young women transitioning out of foster care.

 

I have realized that God has called me here to care for the orphan, just like he did when I spent time in Uganda. Sometimes, they are in our own backyards. Through the years working at Tanager Place, I witnessed so many young women in foster care bounce around in the system, never experiencing permanency and ultimately walk away with no plan for the future, hopeless and without meaning. Young women in foster care have all odds against them and without someone taking their hand, believing in them and teaching them the necessary life skills they become part of the grim statistics of poverty, homelessness, sex trafficking, prostitution and incarceration.

 It was time to bridge the gap for these young women! The gap—residential foster care to independent living—is a crucial, transitional time for these young women. This is why Legacy House was created! These young women can come live in a beautiful, residential neighborhood…in a HOME! It is safe for us to say that this type of program has never been done before with this type of collaboration and support!

HOW CAN YOU HELP?

 

I signed on for this position knowing that there were no funds for salary, due to being a brand new Pilot Program. Being the Program Director and Foster Parent is more than a full-time job. Not only am I living in the home with the girls, investing in them, assisting them to achieve their goals and providing emotional support; I am also working on program development, fundraising for Legacy House, meeting partners and creating ways to sustain and grow this program. Our hope and desire is that this program will be able to be replicated many times over in the next couple of years.

 

I am asking you, for this first Pilot Year, if you would come on board and be a financial partner, supporting me as a full-time urban missionary for the orphan right here in Texas!

 

I need to raise $25,000 for my salary for this first year as I work to sustain this program. I am looking for significant anchor partners ($2000-$5000) and monthly partners ($25, $50, $100). Would you consider being a financial partner? All donations are tax-deductible

 

Your financial support will communicate to these very special young women that we believe in them and are for them.

 

·         29% of the children exiting the foster system each year are in some way being sexually exploited,

·         50% of aged out foster teens will become homeless within the first year

·         3% attain a college degree

 

Will you help me help them?

 

Visit my personal support page from the Legacy House website

·         http://www.legacyhouseaustin.org/meet-our-program-director.htm

·         Click on “Consider Supporting Kari”

·         Enter Credit Card Information

I hope that you decide to come with me on this wild, crazy, exciting journey! Thank you and many blessings!

 

Kari Hamilton   

 

 

 

 

 

The Invitation

A little over a year ago I was on the phone with Jan Meyers-Proett, author of Allure of Hope and Listening to Love, and among the wisest of therapists. We were digging pretty deep and I mean down in the trenches. We were dissecting some recent happenings and the conversation was revolving around my future husband. Of course, through the years I had created “lists” in my head, thoughts on who I desired him to be. But this time it was different. Jan was asking hard questions. Who are you in response to him? How do others respond to you two together? Name very specific characteristics about him. How are you together, physically, emotionally and spiritually? What words come to my mind when you think of being in his presence?

That same day after I hung up with Jan, I immediately thought of this poem. It had been 5 years the last time I had read it, but it instantly filled my mind. I dug it out of an old journal and poured over it. The longing was so deep…yes, so much of what is written in the poem is what I desire between my husband and I.

Read it. Savor it. It is a call to passion; such raw and honest emotion. It is so rightly titled, The Invitation, as I feel that this poem beckons us to live deeply, asking us to want more, to live profoundly together.

The Invitation by Oriah

It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living.

I want to know what you ache for and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me how old you are.

I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon…
I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow
if you have been opened by life’s betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it, or fade it or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy

mine or your own and if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us to be careful to be realistic
to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me is true.

I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself
if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul
if you can be faithless and therefor trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty even when it is not pretty every day

and if you can source your own life from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand at the edge of the lake

and shout to the silver of the full moon, “yes”.

It doesn’t interest me to know where you live or how much money you have.

I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone and do what needs to be done to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me who you know or how you came to be here.

I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom you have studied.

I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep

in the empty moments.

 

Journey to Legacy House- part 1

Feb 25^th 2013

Brandon Hatmaker: “Here’s the deal. We want you”
Me: “Seriously!??!?!?” (Professional response, I know)

 Rewind to October 2012:

 I just returned from spending 4 months in Uganda. I resigned from my position as a Treatment Counselor in a Psychiatric Residential Facility where I had been working just shy of 5 yrs to be able spend those 4 months in Uganda. The whole process had God’s fingerprints all over it and so obviously everything was going to fall into place when I returned…..

So not the case (it did, but just not in MY timing). One month went by, then another. No job. No clear direction. Confused. Begging God for some answers.

 It was such a battle of trying to figure out how all the pieces of the puzzle were going to fit together. I love Uganda. I had been going for the past three years and then spending 4 months there was incredible. So much of my heart was there. BUT….I loved being home too. I have such a strong desire and passion to work for the hurting here in America.

 “Wait a sec! Nashville! That’s where I am supposed to be!” This is where Exile International is based and I wanted to be close to the team to still be involved, yet get a full time counseling job. I had a few interviews, one was very promising and she was going to start calling my references. I kind of panicked and realized I was moving ahead in this and I had no peace from God to move forward. I called and told her that I just couldn’t make the move to Nashville.

 God and I had a few more conversations. I wondered if I should truly step out and fundraise full time to work in Uganda with Exile. Again, such an unsettling feeling with no clear “yes, go in this direction” from God.

 He was constantly reigning me in. Holding me back. Making me stay right where I was in my cozy little condo in Cedar Rapids, IA. I was not too happy about this.

 “God, you know I don’t belong here in IA” (insert giggles from God)

 “I want something so much bigger. I know you know this! I know you understand my desire and passion to be a part of change and movement! God, if I am not supposed to be in Uganda, please let me have a job that I am just as passionate about….the things YOU are passionate about…bring it Lord”

 Just wait, Kari

 “What am I waiting for?!?!”

 

November, December, January--- no job. I am filling in as a secretary (first impression specialist) at my Dad’s company. And if any of you know me, I’m sure you realize how absolutely miserable I was. Nothing against my dad’s company, but sitting at a desk and answering phones all day???? Oh I wanted to crawl out of my skin.

 

Then, I FINALLY get a job offer to be a Functional Family Therapist.

 Is this what God was having me wait for?

 I put on a fake smile, accepted and succumbed that this was just temporary. Surely, God still had something else up His sleeve. I even remember my facebook post that I wrote after I accepted this job, stating that I was confident that even though I am still in Cedar Rapids, IA taking this new job, that God was still going to reveal His ultimate plan.

 Don’t get me wrong, it was wonderful to be able to be fully trained and to practice a whole new level of therapeutic intervention with families. But it still didn’t feel right. I still felt stuck.

 It is now the end of January. I just returned from attending a new training for my job in Connecticut. I am home in my condo and skimming through my newsfeed on Facebook.

 Jen Hatmaker (I wish I could remember what friend of mine posted something of Jen’s about a yr ago that led me to “like” her page. If I could remember, you would get a big fat hug and thank you!) just recently posted about a position pertaining to this new program called, Legacy House, with a link to Brandon’s Blog.

 I went to check it out. With every sentence that I was reading, my heart was pounding just a little bit harder. I found myself agreeing to everything I was reading. My passion was increasing and I was remembering all the faces of girls that I had worked with in the past in the residential facility. Girls in the foster care system, some that were not, but completely broken, no hope, no safety net, no encouragement; stuck with families or shelters that continued to break them down.

 I love them. So much. I never thought that I would work in residential for as long as I did. It was brutal at times. Kicked, spit on, hair pulled so hard my scalp would bleed, skin torn apart from being bit, scars due to their nails being dug in my skin. It took about a year to develop some thick skin to deal with all of it. But when you can learn to see more than their behaviors, more than their pain that is speaking…..then you can truly see their worth and what they are capable of.

 Brandon wrote about their desire to have a Resident Director come to Austin, TX to live in the home with 4 girls at a time that were transitioning out of foster care. I walked away from my computer, not sure what to do with it all!

 A couple hours had passed. I knew it was my passion, but the timing just seemed terribly off. I JUST started a new job!

 “God, I have no idea if this is at all what you have been telling me to wait for, but I’m just going to submit my info. That’s it. There are thousands of people seeing this post. Nothing is going to come of it, but thanks for letting me read about this!”

 Ha! I bet God was just having a blast with all of this. I submitted my info and then went on my merry way honestly thinking I was never going to hear anything, truly!

 Jan 31^st I receive an email from Brandon stating that I was put in the top 5 and he would like to chat.

 I was shocked, totally taken back. Initially, I had no idea what to think. I honestly never thought I was going to hear anything and so I really never thought seriously about the whole thing! Could I really do this? Is this truly why God has been telling me to wait? Is Austin, TX where I am supposed to be??

 I fervently began seeking God about all of this. For the first time since returning from Uganda in October I felt the path open up before me and God telling me “yes, go….this is where I want you to walk.”

 We chatted and then I flew out to Austin for an interview….completely terrified! I don’t think I had ever been more nervous in my life. I contemplated some wise advice that was given to go take a shot before the interview to calm my nerves, but settled that starbucks might be better.

 I had a week to wait until I was going to hear back. I kid you not, EVERY DAY something happened that pointed to Austin. I would open a book and the first sentence would be about Austin, TX. My mom called and said she was reading the local paper and Austin, TX was listed as one of the top places to visit. I was flying home after training from CT and the girls sitting next to me were from Austin. I was convinced that either God was playin’ me or that He was continuing to affirm that this was His plan.

Feb 25^th 2013

Brandon: “Here’s the deal, we want you”

 March 15^th 2012

I packed up my condo, brought my necessary belongings and hit the road for Austin, TX!