Handprint turkeys, counting blessings, and supporting families in the Mat-Su

On my wall hang two painted, handprint turkeys. These five-fingered friends came home just before Thanksgiving, seven years apart, when my girls were in preschool at Butte Elementary. I can remember drawing handprint turkeys when I was small. For me, they will always represent love and gratitude for tiny hands.

This season provides opportunities to count our blessings. I have friends who make a tree each November with cut-out paper hands serving as both leaves and notes of gratitude. In this, the most basic and essential of all counting tasks, we can find child-like joy in blue skies, hoarfrost, pizza, and clothes right out of the dryer. But the templates for these leaf-hands are the most precious blessing of all: our beloved children, whose small hands rest on our cheeks or grip our fingers as we walk with short, matching strides.

Here are a handful of blessings in my life. I’m thankful for my family, for friends, teachers, and librarians, for artists and poets. I thank God for life, beauty, and peace. I know He loves me and sees my efforts to improve. Through His grace, I can become like Him.

I am grateful for the people and services in our community who step in, lift, support, and guide parents and families in need. I appreciate child advocates and foster parents. And I’m grateful to anyone in the grocery store who smiles with encouraging compassion or offers a kind word when they see small people unable to bear the burdens of too-big feelings and circumstances beyond their control.

Parenting is hard, even when you have met your children’s basic needs. When you add the chronic stress of poverty, isolation, illness, or generational trauma to the mix, parenting can feel impossible.

I recently spoke to Dawn Paulson, Beacon Hill’s Programs Administrator for the Mat-Su Valley. Paulson often shares her “safe families” story when introducing Beacon Hill’s work and mission. “Every family faces a crisis at some point,” she said. Her family’s crisis came when both of her parents were hospitalized, she had four young children at home, and her husband had to work and couldn’t stay home with the kids. Paulson’s friends and church community rallied around her family, ensuring that her children were safe, cared for, and fed while she attended to her parents’ needs.

But what about all the families who don’t have people to rally around them when times get tough? How many of us are one or two steps away from a serious crisis?

Beacon Hill recognizes that social connections can provide a buffer to families in distress. Most child abuse and neglect incidents occur when families are socially isolated. Beacon Hill operates the Safe Families for Children (SFFC) program in Alaska. SFFC provides wraparound services to parents whose children are in foster care or at risk for removal using a support network of volunteer host families, mentors, and participating church communities.

“Every family that utilizes the SFFC movement steps out of social isolation and into support. Parents have the ability to confidently ask for help for themselves and their families without the fear of being judged or condemned for their situation” (beaconhillak.com/safe-families-for-children).

Beacon Hill just opened their Mat-Su Family Support Center in Palmer to promote meaningful, quality family contact for foster care children and their parents. They rely on trained Family Time Supporters to help facilitate quality family contact in the Mat-Su. You can get involved by dropping off supplies to families in quarantine, being trained as a Family Friend or Host, or support Beacon Hill’s mission financially by making a donation or purchasing items from their online boutique.

When the community supports parents and families to keep their children safe and healthy, the outcomes are better for everyone. To learn more about volunteer opportunities or get involved, find Beacon Hill on JustServe.org or visit beaconhillak.com. Read more about protective factors at strengtheningfamilies.net.

As you count your blessings and hold your children close this Thanksgiving, consider some ways to build supportive relationships and help keep all our children safe. Find more family-focused volunteer opportunities on JustServe.org.

Amity Condie has lived in Palmer with her husband since 2004. She delights in her daughters and is currently completing an online MSSW internship with ROCK Mat-Su. She is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.