Wanda’s Story
W.D. was born in Danville, Virginia. At the age of three she was removed from an abusive home situation and placed in foster care.
By the age of 13 she had been in 12 different homes and had no meaningful, trusting, relationships.
Fortunately, a kind and loving family became the 13th stop for W.D. For four years she felt safe, loved and supported, but they could no longer care for her.
W.D. graduated from high school and was moved by a social services agency to Lynchburg to prepare for transition from foster care to independent living. Since moving into an assisted living arrangement W.D. has worked a few menial jobs and struggled making friends.
The foster care agency that has supervision of W.D. heard about Community Connected and approached us about considering W for a table.
During the first meeting we observed a shy, vulnerable young woman who was single, eight months pregnant, and uncertain about her future.
Soon W.D. was meeting with a few of her table members and shared that she was having a difficult pregnancy due to some personal health issues. She went on to say that she had no plans for her future because she had never really been allowed to make decisions about such things as where and with whom she would live. She had no contact with her baby’s father or her birth mother and was missing the one family that had sheltered her for four years.
One of the table members, a crisis pregnancy counselor, has guided W.D. through the last stages of her pregnancy, the delivery of her daughter and now travels with W.D. to doctor’s appointments for the baby.
W.D. has found a safe place at her table.
She is beginning to consider a challenging future. Soon, together with her table members, W.D. will develop her life plan.
She is finding comfort in new trusting relationships, the commitment of seven compassionate adults and the growing awareness that she is supported and unconditionally loved by her table family.