Recently on Small Town Big Deal - a weekend television show celebrating small towns in America - featured a farm in Libertyville, IL. The location peaked my interest; it's location near Chicago had me thinking I may have visited or driven past their feature location. That was not the case this time. None the less, the more I heard about the feature the more I was intrigued.
Taken directly from their website:
Lambs Farm is a place that provides all of the essential ingredients for people to grow: a safe, caring, living environment; an extended family of peers with shared values and mutual respect; opportunities to have productive employment and to make a contribution to the community while being as self-sufficient as possible.
It is a great story. Not only do the employees work in almost every capacity of the farm, many of them make this their residence. Housing is offered in one of the nine group homes on the campus. This offers residents the ability to be independent, but still have the support they need. What a great idea!
The videos on Lambs Farm website do a much better job than I in describing the beautiful and supportive environment the campus offers. I can only hope that this will be a plan for the future in helping others achieve their full potential no matter who they are.
This article spoke to me .... to my very essence of being a mother.
I cannot tell you
how many times my parentage of our four children were questioned, or
how many times I've been asked if my husband is the father of all four of my children, or
how beautiful bi-racial children are and how they wished they had one (as if they are puppies or cats).
Why? Why do people seem to think that because my family may look different from theirs that they have the right and privilege to ask me some very private questions.
Think about it .... if you would not ask your friends, who happen to be in mono-racial or mono-ethnic families, these questions why would you ask me?
