A Moms Who Care Story

During the 2018 Washington State Legislative Session, I traveled to Olympia with a grassroots organization called Mothers of the Mentally Ill. I learned a lot about our broken mental healthcare system as we fought for better conditions for those who suffer from severe mental illness. It was a productive session, and I was proud of our accomplishments, especially when they voted to fund some much-needed behavioral health hospitals around the state.

When I found out that one of these hospitals would be built not a mile from my home in rural Clark County I felt charged with responsibility. I had fought for it, and despite the negative outcry from my neighbors, I wanted it to succeed. But how? As I prayed, I remembered what I had learned during that session about our overburdened, burnt-out behavioral healthcare workers. Moms Who Care was born.

The completion date for the hospital was still a couple of years away, but I decided to start bringing snacks and encouragement to the staff at the small local behavoral health inpatient facilities in our area. I was glad when two of my advocacy/ministry friends agreed to join me. We signed our thank you cards, “From, some moms who care."

I was nervous the first time my teammate Kelli and I went to the Lifeline Connections Crisis Wellness Center, an inpatient facility that treats those suffering from severe mental illness and drug addiction.

We loaded my Subaru with Krispy Kreme donuts, a meat and cheese tray, crackers, and fruit from Costco. As we drove to the Crisis Wellness Center together, I wondered if we would be well received. Would they want our gifts? Would they understand why we wanted to offer them support? Would they even let us in the door?

 At the facility, we prayed in the car for peace, comfort, hope, healing, encouragement, and love for the workers, clients and the facility itself and I took courage. But when we pushed the doorbell at the entrance and no one came to greet us I grew nervous again. We waited, rang the bell, and waited some more. I was about to give up and leave but Kelli urged me to stay. Just a minute later a woman with a kind smile opened the door.

When we explained who we were and why we were there, she was so touched that she started to cry. She explained that she was a former addict who had found her place in helping others like herself recover.

We met others who looked ready to drop from exhaustion. With smiles of gratitude, they explained that it had been a really bad day and that they couldn’t wait for the sugar rush of Krispy Kreme donuts to help them get through. Each one of the people we met gave us a heartfelt thank you.

 I was grateful when a few months later, Vancouver Church offered to support us. Now we sign all our cards from Moms Who Care and Vancouver Church.

We've witnessed first hand the high turnover rate and spare workforce that I learned about in the 2018 legislative session. And we've heard about the rewards of the job when clients recover and go on to lead productive lives. But as the people we've spoken with have attested, it's often a hard, dangerous job, filled disappointment, and heartbreak. It's why we do what we do.

We were happy to be greeted as friends at the Crisis Resource Center last December when we delivered coffee and Christmas cookies from Crumbl. All the workers came out to the lobby to give us hugs and tell us how much they appreciate our gifts and encouragement. Some of the workers told us about their own personal problems and we counted it a privilege to pray for them on our way home.

Through it all, I believe that I'm the one who receives the most from Moms Who Care. Jesus’ words from Luke 6:38 are true: “Give and it will be given to you.”