For some of our host families, this work is deeply personal.
It’s taking what they didn’t receive, and choosing to give it anyway.
Whether a safe space, or a loving presence, the heart of hosting is to provide empathy through action in a child’s hardest moment.
This is what it means to be a host family with Better Together.
Watch as Teri and Jack Little share their experience volunteering as a Better Together host family:
Transcript
Teri: I volunteer with Better Together because my pain has given me a passion, which gives me purpose. And my purpose is to love on kids that are in need.
My name is Terry Little. This is my husband, Jack. And we’ve been a host family for Better Together for between four and five years.
What it is to be a host family is take the brief time you have with these kids and let them know that they’re going to be safe, protected, loved on until they can be reunited with their own family.
I grew up in a very dysfunctional home. My mom did not, and up until the day she died, did not say I love you. And because I didn’t have the parenting, because I didn’t have the nurturing, I had a emptiness that I said, you know what? I didn’t get it, but I can be it. And that’s what I had to do. I had to say, this is not what I received, but it’s what I’ve learned to give. And that’s, that’s our why.
We’ve been married 30 years. We have five kids and we have 12 grandkids. So, we’ve been used to having lots of kids around, lots of situations with kids around.
As it relates to Better Together, we have learned a whole lot more about how to integrate in a short period of time. We’ve learned how to show them the kind of love that they need in a very demonstrative way.
Jack: Working with Better Together was just another step to continue our steps in life to…
Teri: life’s calling. Our calling.
Jack: Yeah, life’s calling to take care of other people’s children. And it’s definitely been a blessing.
Growing up, I didn’t have my mom. And so when I see these little kids come in here, I’m going to love on them.
And seeing these children definitely scared because they want their mommy. Mom or dad are just trying to survive.
Teri: In reflecting on my childhood, I’d have to stop and say maybe if there was a Better Together and my mom could have gotten a break and she could have been helped to get healthier. But instead, her four girls had to walk in the wave of misery.
I’m grateful that Better Together exists because I know now that kids have a chance at recovering through this trauma. Better Together has helped bring healthy people with needy kids so that conflict can be resolved.
