Soon there will be a new resource available in Monroe to help the families of foster and adopted children with necessities, including clothing, toys, books and shoes.
The Treasure Chest, a children's clothing boutique for local foster and adoptive families, will hold a ribbon-cutting celebration at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, April 26. Located inside Cascade Church (14377 167th Ave. S.E.) in the Fryelands area, the entrance to the shop is on the south side of the building near the church's community garden. The Treasure Chest will open five days a month, and private appointments can be arranged.
Conceptualized by Monroe residents Julie and Kevin Hanford, the Treasure Chest will allow families of foster and adopted children to gather clothing and other much-needed supplies at no cost. Julie has been working with her mother, Gerrie Johnson, since the end of January to amass donations and get everything organized.
"There's nothing really here in Monroe for foster and adoptive families that I'm aware of,GÇ¥ Julie said. "Anybody who has adopted or is fostering is welcome to come.GÇ¥
Julie and her husband, Kevin, a Monroe City Councilmember, have four adopted children, which is one of the things that inspired them to create The Treasure Chest. In addition to wanting to support other adoptive and foster families, they wanted to pay forward the valuable assistance that they received from similar organizations.
"It was such a huge help for not only the kids we ended up adopting but the other foster children we had,GÇ¥ Julie said. "Just to know that we could spend time on the kids, and they would pull together clothes for us ' it just helped tremendously.GÇ¥
The Treasure Chest carries gently used clothing from infant to adult sizes, footwear, blankets, bedding, coats, games, books, hair accessories, belts, jewelry and more. Visiting families will be asked to provide the name of their social worker, along with the names and ages of their children. Monroe residency is not a requirement to "shopGÇ¥ at the Treasure Chest.
Julie would also like to be able to provide toiletries and is seeking donated items such as travel-size tubes of toothpaste, new toothbrushes, combs, brushes, soaps and small containers of shampoo. She recalled a time when she and Kevin were placed with two babies and realized they didn't have any baby shampoo.
"It didn't dawn on me until we had the babies,GÇ¥ Julie said. "We had like four hours' notice and we had two babies.GÇ¥
Once a family becomes licensed to provide foster care, a caseworker could seek placement in that home without extensive notice. That is why Julie would like to be able to provide a resource for the last-minute incidentals that people might not think of when welcoming a new child into their home.
"There's a lot of other things that you have to deal with in foster care and adoption,GÇ¥ Julie said. "The more you can do to help out the families, the better.GÇ¥
Julie and Kevin, who are parents to three biological and four adopted children, always knew that they were interested in adopting children. Specifically, they wanted to provide a stable and loving home for siblings, knowing that it is much more difficult to place two children than it is to place one. Once their youngest daughter, Linzie, reached the third grade, they began navigating the process of becoming licensed foster parents.
Eventually, they were placed with 3-year-old Melody and her brother Landon, who was almost 5 at the time. Melody and Landon, who had different names when they arrived, lived with the Hanfords for about 18 months before the adoption was finalized. Julie and Kevin let them choose their own names as both a safety measure and a way to help them truly experience a fresh start.
This year, Melody will be 7, and Landon will be 9.
And then, two years ago, they decided to adopt one more child.
"We thought, we've got these two little kids [and] we've got the three older kids,GÇ¥ Julie said. "Let's bridge that gap and find somebody in the middle.GÇ¥
They were placed with Courtney, now 12, when she was 10 years old. The Handford's adopted Courtney, and then about a month after the adoption was finalized, they got a call about her older sister, Katrina. Katrina, 14, officially became a part of the family when her adoption was finalized this January. Julie and Kevin had slight trepidations about adopting a teenager, but the situation couldn't have worked out any better.
"These girls are very sweet, and we just love them,GÇ¥ Julie said. "We're so glad they're with us, and they fit in with the family great.GÇ¥
Courtney and Katrina were also allowed to choose their own names, in the interest of enhancing security and facilitating a fresh start. And it was Katrina who decided that the new boutique should be named the Treasure Chest.
"She had a dream and felt like God gave her that name for this,GÇ¥ Julie said.
The Hanfords' biological children ' Hayley, 21, Cody, 17, and 15-year-old Linzie ' have embraced their siblings. With seven children, Julie was concerned about taking on a new challenge like The Treasure Chest, but she has come to welcome spending time at the boutique with her mom.
"It's kind of my way to get away,GÇ¥ Julie said. "If I need a little break, I can come here, and I'm still at least doing something that will help someone.GÇ¥
"We love projects,GÇ¥ Johnson added.
Julie feels that the new boutique will dovetail nicely with the orphan care ministry that she and Kevin facilitate out of Cascade Church.
The Treasure Chest will open the first and third Sundays of each month from 1 to 3 p.m., the second Tuesday of each month from noon to 2 p.m.; the second Friday of each month from 6 to 7 p.m. and 9 to 10 p.m.; and from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on the fourth Wednesday of every month.
For those who wish to make a donation, the boutique is seeking hangers that can be used to store pants, skirts and shorts in children's and adult sizes. They are also seeking lightly used sports equipment, hair accessories and-á jewelry for teens.
"We don't want our foster kids feeling like foster kids,GÇ¥ Julie said. "We want them feeling like everybody else.GÇ¥
For more information, visit www.facebook.com/groups/thetreasurechestmonroe.-á
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