BEVERLY MORRIS

Beverly is a grandmother of eight grandchildren, six of whom live with her (ages four, five, seven, nine, 10 and 12). She remembers vividly the moment she received the call to take her grandchildren. She was working at Progressive Insurance, a job that she loved. But Beverly felt that the call to take in her grandchildren was more important and decided to become their full-time caretaker. She feels that the journey that God has placed her on is awesome, and believes that every child should be loved and happy during their childhood so they can grow up to become productive members of society.

Beverly has a strong group of individuals who she feels God has placed in her family's life––her friend Fiona, who started "Team Beverly" (a  team of men and women who support Beverly's family), as well as Austin Angels and their Love Box group, who have been there for her and her family. Beverly wants to empower other families to accept kinship placements and churches to become a teams for a families who have kinship placements or children in foster care. She believes that it really takes "a village" to raise children, and gives credit to the parents God gave her, who took in their own grandchildren and were foster parents. She now understands why they did.