In 2008 I sat on the floor playing with my one year old son Caleb. I thought about how lucky I was to have a healthy wonderful child. I had always wanted to adopt and at that moment I wondered why you never hear about orphanages any more in America. (They call them group homes or residential facilities now) I opened the phone book and made a phone call that day that literally opened my eyes and changed my life.
I called the Horry County Shelter home and spoke to a gentleman that invited me out to the group home that housed both boys & girls. It was in the middle of July and they were all just sitting inside the home, I turned to the gentleman and asked him why this was. He explained to me that they didn’t have the extra funding for activities and outings. I made it my mission to get those kids out of the house and I did, I made phone calls after phone calls. We took numerous trips and I got craft items donated and spent time creating different things with them until October rolled around and when I asked Ed (the administrator) when was he going to take the kids to get costumes for Halloween? He replied “I will just get them some face paint.” Not on my watch I thought. I marched straight to Spirit Halloween and got those kids costumes. I realized that a stay at home on a budget couldn’t save the world by herself. I got my 501©(3) non-profit status and got some volunteers and some years later we have branched out and have touched four shelters in our short existence. I am sad to say the first home I visited had to shut their doors because they just didn’t have the funding to stay open. I am still a stay at home mom and now I am a mom to two wonderful boys. Caleb and Chace keep me on my toes. I always said I wanted to adopt, I now have the best of both worlds.
We are all volunteers at Caleb’s Dragonfly Dreams.
I am joined by Tina Della who helps write our proposals and by Monica Pancirov who provides us with creative ideas for our activities.
