Lee Anne is a wife and a mother. Lee Anne is also a home-based parent coach. Specifically, Lee Anne goes into the homes of families who have open cases with foster care and child protective services. Her primary goal is to strengthen families and ensure a safe and healthy home for the children.
Lee Anne is also a storyteller. Her faithful retelling of her daily events are sure to hit your gut hard with laughter. But smack in the middle of her stories, one thing is always clear: Lee Anne takes her role seriously and cares immensely for each one entrusted to her.
In the years I worked with Lee Anne, I quickly grew to appreciate her faithful approach with each client – something she continues to this day.
I remember one teen couple with a blistered past and an infant daughter. I met with them to do an assessment and, like so many other times, I was tempted to leave with an extra weight from their sad history. But as I sat with them in their small living room, they both gave off sparks of hope, naturally rehearsing some of the various parenting skills they were learning from Lee Anne. I left with a glad heart, knowing they had Lee Anne. Better still, I left with hope because they knew they had Lee Anne.
With all of her clients, Lee Anne goes in with a gusty force – the kind that exposes weaknesses, but makes one thankful that they are no longer melting in isolation. She’s a natural. She knows how to push each one to do and be better, while extending all the grace in the world. Lee Anne advocates and models and, with every ounce of motherly resourcefulness and care, she teaches and listens and breathes hope into each life. Along with Lee Anne’s inherent gumption, she brings her unique way of helping a young parent understand the importance of ministering to the heart of a child, something she calls “filling up their love tanks.”
When I think of Lee Anne, I think of the many men and women who go into homes across the nation every week in an attempt to prevent child abuse and neglect, and work to restore broken families. What if every young mother or young couple at risk had a Lee Anne?
This seems like an odd question to those of us who have been blessed to have our own Lee Anne – whether in the form of a mother, grandmother, sister, aunt or friend. We might be tempted to take for granted the support, help, and modeling we have received. But there are many young mothers who are trapped in a generational cycle where basic parenting and life skills were not modeled. And, while we all have the tendency to fumble in these areas, their fumbles can be more severe, more tragic. There is more hope to be had for these young, at-risk mothers – and for the next generation – when a young parent has the support, the teaching and the help, of a Lee Anne.