Children’s Bread for Families exists to serve troubled children, their families, and those who serve them. We do this by offering Biblical encouragement and helps; deliverance and inner healing teachings and ministry; as well as intercession and advocacy for institutions that contribute to their care.
Lorraine and her family live near Fort Mill, SC and are involved in their local church and ministries. Lorraine and her husband, Chad, are parents to 1 biological son and 2 children adopted from foster care. Both Lorraine and Chad had suffered traumas earlier in their lives that, by God's grace, helped prepare them to raise 2 traumatized children. Their adopted son came to them at age 7 1/2 and their adopted daughter one year later at almost 5 years of age.
Chad and I were very clearly called to adopt children from foster care at The Call 07/07/07. It took us years to prepare for adopting, and right after we became licensed, our beautiful red-headed son came bounding into our lives. He had an extremely traumatic early childhood, and then an unhealthy foster care placement. He was a wreck and our previously peaceful lives were thrown into chaos! But we had lots of grace from God and loving supportive friends and community. After about 5-6 months we had all mostly adjusted.
The day after we had Dear Son’s (DS) adoption party (one year after he came into our lives), DSS called and asked us if we would take an almost 5 year old girl “for about 2 weeks” while they looked for a specialized home for her. We quickly agreed. The specialized home never materialized, so happily 9 months later, she officially became ours.
Dear Daughter (DD) also had a terribly traumatic early childhood, had 9 different sets of parents (and sometimes siblings) prior to coming to us, and has the added bonus of an inherited genetic disorder which causes neurological problems.
DD also arrived to us very spiritually gifted. She has what is known as the “seer” gift. In short, she is sometimes able to see very clearly (as if in the “flesh”) angels and demons and hear them as well. (These are not hallucinations and both she and we clearly know the difference. Ie. She was once on a medication that caused hallucinations - a very different thing). Our first big indication of her spiritual interactions happened one Saturday morning when she was 5 or 6. She walked into our bedroom and announced, “I saw the Devil, but Jesus told me, ‘Don’t worry, [DD] I will get rid of the Devil for you.’” Long story short, it became evident fairly quickly that she had all kinds of spiritual battles going on in her life! We prayed and struggled and loved (and failed a lot), and tried to find help with deliverance and inner healing for her. As the years rolled along, I read what few books I could find on deliverance for children and continued the search. In the meantime, both DD and DS had lots of therapy, doctors’ appointments, IEP meetings, social struggles, and various adventures. We chugged along.
Then DD hit puberty, and a merry-go-round of ER visits, psych hospitals, juvenile detention, DSS investigations, and seemingly endless changes to her IEP and school arrangements began.
After finally realizing that there was no help available for deliverance for DD, I began a small group for parents of traumatized children and earnestly pursued training in deliverance and inner healing. Then one day, God wonderfully pointed out to me that in the Bible, one parent came to Jesus, persistently pursuing Him to deliver his/her child, and He did. Simple! The lightbulb went on and changed my approach to deliverance. I got free from my fears and bondages about it once and for all. Then one evening about a year later, our church held a special time of prayer and fasting. In the middle of one of the meetings, DD began loudly demonically manifesting. Many prayed for her while the service was going on, and when the head pastor was finished speaking, he came and sat down on the floor with her, laid his hands on her head (with her permission) and cast out the demons. Hallelujah! That was not the end of her troubles, by a long shot, but it was the beginning of the end of the demonic strongholds that had been in her life. God is Faithful. He keeps His promises. He is our Strong Tower.
The battle for our children is still on-going, but we have come a long ways, and have had marvelous victories. DD is beginning to thrive and we are rejoicing and glorifying God. Our DS is beginning to thrive as well. Again, all glory to God. We are confident in the outcomes because of Jesus’ faithful promises. Meanwhile, the journey is incredible! God uses everything for good, and He IS Good, all the time!.