Give a Child a Family

1 day ago

＃ＭｏｔｉｖａｔｉｏｎＭｏｎｄａｙ

“𝑭𝒂𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒚 𝒊𝒔𝒏'𝒕 𝒂𝒍𝒘𝒂𝒚𝒔 𝒃𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒅, 𝒊𝒕'𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓𝒔: 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒂𝒄𝒄𝒆𝒑𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒅𝒐 𝒂𝒏𝒚𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒆𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒔𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒏𝒐 𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕.” ~ Maya Angelou

Today's ‘family’ looks very different to what it looked like 50 or 100 years ago. However, children need to grow up with a deep sense of belonging, so it really doesn't matter how and who makes up ‘family’, even if they are fostered or adopted. Every child needs a loving, caring and nurturing family or a person. Even just one adult who is crazy about them and believes in their potential.

We have a lot of fun as a family (also a lot of sadness and pain, that goes with every family) but today I want to share some of the fun things...

We have grandchildren that are ‘peach’ coloured (according to my one granddaughter) and we have ‘brown’ coloured grandchildren. We have eight daughters with multi-cultured backgrounds, so the diversity makes for much laughter and fun.

We had to get used to being stared at, spoken about behind our back - sadly racist comments of a blended family by the general public were the order of the day. One day our one daughter was walking arm in arm with Basil in a shopping centre, chatting away. They got the stares and looks and she, being tired of it all, said out loud "𝒚𝒆𝒔, 𝒉𝒆'𝒔 𝒎𝒚 𝒔𝒖𝒈𝒂𝒓-𝒅𝒂𝒅𝒅𝒚!!!" and the people around gasped.

Then, just the other day, my daughter who drove me from work, stopped at a petrol station to fill up. While she did that, I jumped out and went over to the shop and bought bread. I jumped back in and my daughter pulled out her wallet to pay for the petrol with her money, and as we were driving off, the comments and stares as the petrol attendants couldn't make out the situation, were hilarious! “𝑻𝒉𝒆 ‘𝒎𝒂𝒅𝒂𝒎’ 𝒈𝒐𝒕 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒓 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒖𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 ‘𝒎𝒂𝒊𝒅’ 𝒊𝒔 𝒅𝒓𝒊𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒓 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒑𝒂𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒆𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒍.” They couldn't make sense of any of this?

When any of our brown girls are holding their ‘peach’ nieces or nephews, they are immediately regarded as the child's ‘nanny’ and comments like “𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 ‘𝒎𝒂𝒅𝒂𝒎𝒔’ 𝒃𝒂𝒃𝒚 𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒐 𝒄𝒖𝒕𝒆!!”

We have a long way to go as a country to where colour, race and creed makes no difference to your sense of belonging, your status, who you are or what you do.

As a family, we want each other; we've chosen to love unconditionally, we've chosen to be family with huge complexities. We live trying to understand and love despite all our differences. We don't always get it right, but we try.

We all need to strive to keep family alive even if they are blended, and not blood of our blood.

You would give a child a great gift of love and life, if you fostered or adopted a child into your family... children REALLY NEED FAMILY.

Love,
Monica ❤

(Photo supplied by Monica is of one of her daughters and four grandchildren)

#ForeverFamilies #BlendedFamily #SaveTheFamily #FamiliesMatter ... See MoreSee Less

Give a Child a Family

3 days ago

Every year, on May 15th, the #InternationalDayoftheFamily is celebrated throughout the World. 🌍

Family is the basic unit of society. This day provides an opportunity to raise awareness about the issues related to the families and to increase knowledge about the social, economic and demographic processes that affect them. 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL FAMILY DAY!! ❤Founded by the United Nations in 1994, The International Day of Families is observed on May 15 every year to celebrate the importance of families, people, societies and cultures around the world.

At GCF, our vision is "CHILDREN IN SECURE FAMILIES" and that is why we are passionate about working with parents in our communities, to strengthen the family unit, because strong families build strong nations!

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL DAY OF THE FAMILY to all families around the world!

#ChildrenInSecureFamilies
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Give a Child a Family

5 days ago

＃ＡｓｃｅｎｓｉｏｎＤａｙ

This day signifies the end of His work on Earth and allowed Him to prepare a place for followers in Heaven.

Jesus' last words before ascension were "Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit" 🙌❤

#CommitYourSpirit #Ascension #Love ... See MoreSee Less