A long-term friend reached out to me several weeks ago asking if I wanted to meet for lunch. It had been a long time since we've done that. He is the former President/CEO of one of the largest children's homes in Texas. A few years back, he retired to provide himself a break from the industry. Today he lives less than two hours away.
One of the things I value about his friendship is his ability to think outside the box. He is currently working as a quasi-consultant to a children's home network in Australia. One of the characteristics of old child welfare workers is the desire to continue to support quality of life for children from hard places.
When I first received the lunch invitation, I had no voice. That in and of itself would have made our meeting for lunch a one-sided conversation. In addition, because of the orthopedic boot I've been wearing, I could not drive. Add to that my dependency on using a walker, and I was pretty much home bound. My friend voluntarily offered to come to Blanco.
He and I had lunch at the Chess Club in Blanco yesterday. He picked me up at the house. Without having a dependency on using a walker, I felt like a man with a get out of jail free card in a game of Monopoly. The ability to walk upright without the need to use the walker to lessen the load on my right foot with my upper body strength is refreshing.
After lunch we came back to the house and sat on the back deck to visit. The weather was comfortable, and it felt good to be outside. We talked about many things including some of the challenges that children's homes face going forward.
One of the things we both find puzzling is the absence of individuals that want to work as houseparents. For years, many have felt called to do that work as a form on ministry. Somehow, with the onset of COVID in 2020 and the public heath message to stay-in-place and avoid being around others, house parenting positions became harder to fill.
Of course, across the country the lack of people to work in any number of positions have been increasingly difficult to find. There are still restaurants that are only open for part of the week because of the absence of wait staff.
We didn't solve any of the world's problems in the time that we shared, but the visit was meaningful for me.
All My Best!
Don
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