Coordinating Foster Care in São Paulo

Posted on 25Apr CATEGORIES: General, Jud & Raquel Hatcher [Brazil], Letters, Missionary Wives Tags:Tags: adoption, foster care, foster care families, foster care in Brazil, foster parenting, International Foster Care Symposium, Mothers in Israel, Raquel Hatcher, TBRI, Trust-Based Relational Intervention0

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is HATCHER-Jud-10-October-2020-Family-1-1024x682.jpg — Jud and Raquel Hatcher are third generation missionaries serving the Lord in São Paulo, Brazil. They are part of the “SeedFactory” church planting initiative, which is a movement to plant churches in all 26 Brazilian capitals. Since 2006, 43 churches have been started in 5 states.

April 25, 2023

Dear friends,

I’m excited to write this letter because God has done great things. We arrived in São Paulo, Brazil, a week before Christmas. Being with my parents’ family for the holidays was so special after all we went through the last 18 months in the US. Everyone was amazed by how much our kids had grown.

On January 16, I returned to my role as coordinator in a Foster Care Program, but this time, in a new location and with a new team:

A psychologist
A social worker
A social worker intern
A social worker volunteer

We have worked very hard to organize and structure the program. Our inauguration was on April 4. We met with our jurisdiction judge and her foster care team to align procedures and receive instructions. We were glad the judge was very welcoming and open to foster care; she prefers placing babies, children, and teens in families. This positive attitude towards foster care is not typical among judges in Brazil, resulting in 96% of children and teenagers who are removed from their homes being placed in institutions and only 4% being placed in families. We want to change this sad reality by educating, recruiting, training, and supporting families in our communities to step out of their comfort zone and become foster care families. Most of our presentations are done in churches, but we also present in universities, maternities, business meetings, and others. Currently, we have two families ready to receive a child and one family finishing training. Our goal is to recruit ten families by the end of the year.

The two-bedroom townhouse we rented to serve as our office, where biological families will come for supervised visits, where foster care families will meet with us, and where adoptive families will meet their children for the first time, needs many things. We need sofas, lamps, rugs, decorations, stoves, children’s books, toys, crayons, colored pencils, and many newborn supplies, like clothes, bottles, baby towels, pacifiers, and everything else babies need. We give those items to the foster care families when they receive a baby since they are volunteers and only receive 264 dollars per month to help with medications (children come with many needs, physically, mentally, and psychologically) and other urgent needs the child may have. If you can help with a one-time offer, or if you would like to support this ministry monthly, please, specify your offering to Raquel Foster Care.

I’m also training professionals and foster care families in TBRI (Trust-Based Relational Intervention), a Trauma-Informed Approach. I got licensed to train while we were in the USA. TBRI was developed at Texas Christian University by Dr. Karyn Purvis and Dr. David Cross. If you would like to learn more about it, many TBRI videos are on YouTube. God has blessed us tremendously with many opportunities to serve Him through serving others. Our family is doing well. Jud is extremely busy with our church planting and training he does with pastors and church leaders. My oldest sister Valéria married on April 22; it was a beautiful celebration.

Lastly, Through World Without Orphans Brasil, we (WWO) are bringing Jodi Tucker to São Paulo on April 27. She is the mother of 9 children, some biological and many adopted. She wrote the devotional “Second Mothers.” She will be speaking to mothers by adoption and foster mothers. I will be the master of the ceremony (MC) for the event. We hope to bless those women who dedicate their lives to give hope to those without it.

I want to thank all of you for praying for us, loving us, and helping us financially. We could never do what we do without you. Thank you so, so much! My WhatsApp number is +(5511)99416-4149, if you would like to call me to get more information about our ministry. God bless you!

Love,
Raquel Hatcher