Hidden Gems: Meet Sarah Oberndorfer of Joy Meadows

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah Oberndorfer.

Hi Sarah, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Justin and I have been foster parents for 24 years. As newlyweds, we bought a house in the inner-city and worked with at-risk youth through a church plant and a non-profit. That started us on a journey to helping kids who couldn’t advocate for themselves. We’ve been foster parents in Kansas for the last 10 years. Justin was a high school teacher, pastor, and coach. I was an attorney. Together we had numerous children in foster care throughout our home and personally experienced the burnout and isolation that often comes with that. We worked with our church to start a foster ministry to support families, but always felt we could do more. We’d been looking at the concept of foster care communities across the country for a few years and sought them out to come to Kansas, but didn’t have any response. In 2017, we had children who had been in and out of foster care multiple times and moved over several times due to needing a home that could house more of them together.

We saw the trauma upon trauma this caused to the children, the pain as a foster family, the prevention of attachment, and the vast differences they experienced in foster care. We wished we could keep all 7 siblings together over the numerous years they were in care but we could not. After the case reached the termination of parental rights, and the children were adopted separately, we decided we either needed to quit foster care because it was too painful and frustrating, or we finally needed to do something. So at the end of 2017, we officially formed our non-profit, Joy Meadows, Inc., and decided we would do something new in the State of Kansas to help foster children and families.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
It has always been a struggle, but also interspersed with numerous miracles to keep us going! We have five children, four of who are biological and one who is adopted. We experienced several life-threatening medical issues with two of our biological children and learned that nothing is predictable. It taught us how to advocate for children and get them what they need. The other struggles involved foster care in general. Cases are unpredictable and you do your best, but it often feels like the child’s best interest isn’t what is considered. It is heart-wrenching to see the abuse, trauma, sadness, grief, and pain that the children have experienced love them to your best, but know that you will need to let them go someday.

Other struggles along the way included some of the financial and legal challenges to starting a non-profit. We started with a small investment of our personal funds of less than $1,000, but we needed almost a million to be able to purchase property and get the foster care community concept going. After two years of fundraising, we miraculously had the funds to purchase land and a home, but we needed it to be rezoned by the county so we could develop it as needed. We were surprised that we had much opposition from people that didn’t understand what we were doing and misconstrued the dangers of foster children. Another miracle allowed the property to finally be rezoned to the planned unit development we needed, but with restrictions such as a $500,000 road to be paved. This challenge led to a donation of a road.

Every time there is a new challenge, like the Covid shut-down starting the week we moved into the new property, there have also been new miracles and new opportunities. Due to the Covid shutdown, we were able to get contractors who were waiting on jobs to build out the community center at no cost. Time and time again, a roadblock or struggle led us to the next best step and expansion.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Joy Meadows is the only foster care community in the state of Kansas. It is the mission of Joy Meadows to provide foster families with community support, housing, and resources so that children impacted by foster care can find stability, healing, and joy. We do that through our three main programs Housing; Resources; and Community Support. The Housing Program provides large homes owned by Joy Meadows that are 6 bedrooms, and 4 baths, to selected foster families to live on-site in a home that is able to care for large sibling groups in foster care and keep them all together in one placement and receive all the necessary services they need on the property. It is essentially a neighborhood of foster homes to meet this need for children.

The Resource Program is all about providing the caregivers of children with every resource possible so the children they care for have the best opportunity to find healing from trauma. Rather than their time in care being a holding pattern, we believe we can use that time to help them work through trauma, have normal childhood experiences, find joy and receive healing. We do that in numerous ways! We have an on-site clothing closet, a community garden, an orchard, farm petting animals, a playground, walking trails, and a therapy center that is open to all foster and adoptive families. We do monthly events called Second Saturdays to encourage the caregivers and children which include a fun activity, theme, free dinner, and all the amenities of the property.

We provide therapy on-site with therapists who understand trauma and we can overlap several types of therapy at once from speech, occupational therapy, behavioral, trauma, attachment, and more so that it lessens the time spent going to therapies and works on the whole child. We can match a therapy mentor with the family to watch siblings so a parent can attend the therapy session. We make therapy available to siblings all at the same time to take the burden off of the family and take back that time for children to experience school and fun events. We provide Outdoor Adventure summer day camps so foster and adoptive children can have new experiences like art, kayaking, horseback riding, horticulture, cooking, and plain old fun.

It gives them a way to connect, reach goals, and be a child, and gives the caregiver a time of respite. We also do individual nature-based sessions with equines. All of these things are provided for free to foster and adoptive parents and children. Our third main pillar is our Community Support. Through this, we work with faith communities, child placing agencies, and other organizations to network support for families. Our Church Network works with over 40 churches to provide “Care Communities” to each foster family so they have extra support. This reduced the burnout statistics in our state and provides stability of placement for children. We want people to know that there is a way for everyone to get involved in foster care. Whether it’s volunteering on our property in the garden or orchard or being a mentor to a child, serving in a caring community, folding clothes, or funding a program — we all have to do something and there is a way. While the stories of children in foster care have to remain private, it doesn’t mean that we get to ignore that they are happening.

We’re always looking for the lessons that can be learned in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis. Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share?
Through Covid, we learned that we always can adapt! What may look like an obstacle may really be an opportunity.

For us, Covid caused us to shift our first emphasis on our Housing Program and instead divert to start with our Resource Program. The availability of contractors to build out our empty shell of a building due to the PPP money they had laborers that needed a place to work and they wouldn’t charge us for labor but only materials.

This was a huge opportunity and helped us start our therapy center within the first year of purchasing our property.

We never dreamed that would happen! But it allowed us to have a greater impact on more children much more quickly. We are thankful for that. We also learned the important lesson that we all have trauma, and stressful situations bring that out in all of us. We have to be aware of that in all that we do – not just for the children we serve, but for the caregivers, volunteers, service providers, agency workers, and more.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.joymeadows.org
• Instagram: @joymeadowsfostercommunity
• Facebook: @JoyMeadowsfostercommunity

Image Credits
Jenn Klamm Photography