The Family Connections team is proud to meet families wherever they are along their journeys to safe and nurturing connections. For many of the families accessing services through that program, kids and parents are enthusiastic to begin spending time together and often begin services after having spent some time apart.

Angie*, mother of two, lost custody and visitation time last year because of her struggle with substance abuse. Over this past year, she’s worked hard to regain her sobriety by going to meetings at her local church and completing weekly random UAs for her probation officer. She’s taken classes on parenting and received plenty of resources to assure she has a stable and healthy living situation before beginning visits with her children, Jessica and Jordan. Angie showed a strong commitment to regaining her sobriety and making healthy choices in this past year away from her children, and because of her progress, last week she was able to visit with them for the first time in over a year.

After her orientation process was completed, Angie’s Case Manager was able to provide weekly visitation for her and her children. The children have had consistent contact with mom via phone calls throughout her recovery and were very excited for their first in-person visit. When Jessica and Jordan saw Mom for the first time, they ran into her arms, yelling “Mommy!” Angie, Jessica, and Jordan all hugged while Mom softly cried and told each child how much she loved them and missed them. Both children were just ecstatic to be able to spend time with Mom as Angie was to get to spend time with them. Mom arrived with presents and food for the children, celebrating their recent birthdays that had just passed. After their initial greeting, Mom and the children spent time playing, eating birthday cake, and intermittently giving each other hugs and kisses.

While their goodbyes to each other at the end of the visit were sad, Angie, Jessica, and Jordan were excited to discuss activities they wanted to do at their next visit. The visit was an incredible testament to the importance of safe and healthy connection between a parent and their children. Family Connections is grateful to be a part of this family’s story.

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_{*Names and identifying information have been changed to protect client identities}

Are you interested in supervising and documenting visits for families? CLC’s visitation and exchange program offers both traditional and non-traditional internships. Contact Becky at Becky@casalarimer.com for more information about internships.