As many of you who are close to the foster care community here in Nebraska are aware, we lost a strong advocate in a tragic accident on Thursday night. Mr. Gregg Nicklas, Founder and Co-CEO with his wife, Lisa, was ushered into Glory. Quite frankly, under the circumstances that this happened still make me very angry!! I know that Gregg is not suffering and that as he has now tasted the beauty of Heaven and seen the glory of Gods face and sat upon the lap of Jesus, he would tell us that under no circumstances would he come back to a world so broken and full of pain. However, Im still grappling with the loss, the deep sadness that a man who was a mentor to me in so many ways, is just gone. One of the last conversations I had with Gregg, just three weeks ago was as we were passing each other in the church parking lot. I had all 4 of my little ones in tow...meaning they were running around playing dodge car....and he just smiled and said, Look at this beautiful family! He then went on to thank me for the work I was doing on a committee that I was a member on. He reassured me that my presence on that committee was necessary and greatly appreciated. Wow, an encouragement I surely needed after the difficult task that we had been given to accomplish. While this conversation is precious to me, there is one that is even more powerful and truly helped change the direction of the path I was walking. In 2000, I met Gregg and Lisa at the Christian Heritage offices. I remember sitting in their tiny office sharing my story of foster care and abuse. That my heart has always had a desire to work with foster youth. Soon after that, I began as an overnight staff person in the boys group home. I worked in the group home setting for two years and then my husband and I became licensed foster parents and began our journey. After 13 years of being a foster parent and adopting 4 precious children from the foster care system, I knew that I had to choose....either devote myself and our family to being foster parents OR devote myself and the work of the Foster CARE Closet to the foster care community. I chose the Foster CARE Closet. As you can see, the impact of the conversation I had with Gregg and Lisa in that little room literally affected hundreds of children. Some more directly than others, but thousands none the less. Im still struggling with the loss of Gregg and I know if he were here he would remind me to persevere...to stand up for the cause and to lead gently. journalstar/news/local/911/youth-home-founder-killed-in-hit-and-run-authorities-ask/article_42f1ba2c-10b2-5c9a-8310-6bb4009c9a12.html
Posted on: Sat, 31 May 2014 13:27:43 +0000
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