Foster Mom Feeds 17 Children on Faith

For forty-five years, Mary has been a hardworking foster mom to special needs children and adults.

“I feel like my life has been used to help one child along the way,” she says. “And then another child, and then another one, till I’ve adopted seventeen of them and they’ve made me very happy in life.”

In addition to adopting her kids, Mary opened “Sonshine Children’s Center,” a ministry for children in need. But the road wasn’t easy.

“These children kept coming and they kept staying,” says Mary. “It’s challenging. I’ve never missed a meal, but we’ve come close, and I would never tell the children we didn’t have food. I told them, ‘He is the source that we go to when we’re needing something. He’s the one we’ll ask.’”

Mary said she was amazed by God’s faithfulness when she received truckloads of food from Operation Blessing partner Buist Community Assistance Center.

She smiles as she shares, “We eat breakfast, lunch and supper with our food that we get. We eat better than if I was rich! More than a hundred children have gone through here. Some stayed for years and some were short-term. A lot of them are from families that they didn’t have enough. It makes them very secure to know that they’re not going to go hungry.”

Mary also distributes the food to needy families who come from all over Southeast Kentucky.

“I have families that break down and cry because they are so desperate,” she says. “We’re very appreciative of being able to help the people. They are so grateful.” She says feeding her children and her community has only been possible because of Operation Blessing’s generous partners.

“Thank you from the bottom of my heart,” she says. “You are definitely God’s hands extended to us. If Jesus was here, He would be feeding the hungry, wouldn’t He? If He’s laid it on your heart to give to Operation Blessing, you have chosen a good work. Operation Blessing is just what it says it is, it’s a blessing.”