In a New Light
Judy Victory’s Eye for Sunrises & Her Fresh Perspective on the Father’s Heart
The sun rises every morning, but how often do we rise to watch it? The stillness of night awakens calmly and slowly into vibrant day, the sun brushing glowing hues of orange, pink, and red across a pale blue canvas. Birds begin to chirp and hum one at a time as they sing the world into morning, rousing each creature from their rest. The breeze picks up gently. The trees shake the dew from their leaves; it descends in a floating mist. Meanwhile we lie down, asleep in our beds.
If you have ever watched the sun come up in the morning, you probably know the unique peace that accompanies this beautiful moment in nature. The world is simple and slow. The love of God the Father is visible here in a special way as we watch Him bring His world to life as He does each morning while we are still asleep. Sunrises offer us a new perspective, a fresh angle from which to witness the Father’s lavishing of His grace and love on us, His children. In the same way, foster care and adoption reveals to us a special lens through which we can see God’s wondrous love.
Judy Victory, C127’s newest team member, shared how her perspective was enhanced through her work in the foster care world just as it was when she began watching sunrises.
Judy joins the C127 team after working and leading for 16 years at Edgewood Children’s Ranch, a non-profit organization that provides a residential program for vulnerable children to live in a family-style unit and receive trauma-informed care and education. She met Betsey and Rechaud in 2019 when they came to Grace Church in Winter Garden to introduce the idea of Family Advocacy Ministries. Having been searching and praying just that morning for an opportunity to volunteer in the foster care world, she was stunned and amazed to have her prayer powerfully answered when she arrived at church and learned about C127. Judy immediately began volunteering to help run events like the annual moms retreat, and throughout the following few years she became a friend and a valuable member of the C127 community.
Judy’s own foster care journey was instrumental in growing her heart for vulnerable children and her desire to help them experience Christ’s love in a well supported family. As a child, Judy’s family fostered 35 kids before she turned ten. She even recalls, as a four year old, desperately wanting to be adopted simply because of what she observed of the children her family cared for. She remembers many of their adoptive parents picking them up and taking them on fun outings. Four year old Judy was a bit jealous. When that four year old girl grew up, she fostered too. Judy has cared for 15 children in her home, and she has a 26 year old son who was adopted out of the foster care system.
Judy with her son, Walter.
Throughout her experiences fostering and working at Edgewood Children’s Ranch, Judy’s perspective changed dramatically, and not just on kids. She gained a fuller understanding of God’s love, His forgiveness, and His passionate desire for reconciliation with His children. Like our Teen Family Support Specialist, Peggy Bush, Judy is a licensed TBRI practitioner. Trust Based Relational Intervention (TBRI) is a specialized intervention designed for vulnerable children who have experienced significant trauma. Judy employed her experience and knowledge of kids from hard places and their unique needs during her years at Edgewood Children’s Ranch, and they guided the disciplinary procedures she put in place as the principal there. She recalled that the school staff would not require an apology from the students when they made a mistake; they would simply work with them to create a plan for reparations. The students would have to think of a way to make things right with the person they wronged. Judy explained that this approach often led to the truest form of repentance. Kids would end up offering sincere apologies when they went to make restitution, and this kind of reconciliation was far more authentic and powerful than it would have been if an apology was required of the student.
Fostering changed the way Judy sees the Father’s love. Learning about trauma and the effects it has on children, as well as implementing TBRI in her parenting and work, “changed [her] approach to everything.” It dramatically shifted her view of God His desire for true reconciliation. Judy remembers that she grew up thinking of God as somewhat judgemental and punitive, but learning about trauma and its underlying roots revolutionized her view of Him. Trauma, Judy pointed out, at its core represents unmet need. As Judy learned how to effectively recognize and meet those needs in kids with trauma, she began to see the Father’s heart more clearly. She became a witness to “how forgiving God is and how much He longs to reconnect with us.” Putting it clearly and powerfully, Judy said, “God knows you will mess up; He died for that.” Rather than turning away in cold anger when His children stray from Him, the Father remains fixed on us and “desperate to meet our needs.”
Whether they have been trained in trauma response or not, Judy wants those who are not actively involved in caring for vulnerable children to know that they CAN do it.
So often, the first sentence people respond with when they hear of a foster or adoptive parent is “Oh, I could never do that!”
On one level, this reaction makes perfect sense. It reveals their knowledge of the wholehearted commitment required to foster or adopt. It will be exhausting, and it will be challenging, but she described an analogy she often uses to explain how this can feel difficult. When parents say that they could never foster, Judy asks them, “If your child had to go in for a really hard surgery, or if you had to go in for a really hard surgery, which would it be?” Their response is always a decisive “Me, I would go.” “So then,” Judy pivots, “That foster kid, do you want to carry the burden of caring for them and the grief of losing them, or do you want them to carry the grief of never having a family?” She answers her own question: “We do because we’re the adults. We CAN take on the hard.”
Judy’s analogy is not meant to induce guilt, but rather it is intended to point out the flaws in many people’s knee-jerk reactions to avoid getting involved in caring for vulnerable kids. Her words also highlight the deep power of parental love; caring parents will stop at nothing to protect and provide for their children. What would happen if we took the hot spotlight of that same powerful parental love and aimed it onto a child in foster care, God’s child, who is alone and longing to belong in a family?
Not all are called to foster, but all are called to care. The reality is that many of us are in life circumstances that make it unwise to adopt or become foster parents, but what if those roles are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to making a difference for vulnerable children? Existing foster families are quitting faster than new ones are opening their homes. One obvious way to combat this is to recruit more families to foster and adopt, but it is just as critical and immediate that we find ways to radically support and strengthen current foster families. This is why Commission 127 exists, and it is why we want to work with people like Judy Victory who have the skills and the passionate determination to never give up on these kids.
Judy’s exuberant love for vulnerable kids is fueled by her deep understanding of God’s perfect fatherhood. The reason that parental love burns so brightly inside every caring mom and dad is because we were created by the Father whose love for His children burns eternally and with such brightness that it lit up the sky in beautiful hues on the morning of the Resurrection.
Judy will be working in the new role of the Operations and Events Manager where she will oversee Program Operations and manage the many events that connect and equip families and churches. She views her new position as being a sort of “hub” for the C127 team. Judy aims to take some of the laborious administrative tasks off the plates of others, giving them additional capacity to expend their energy serving “on the front lines.” Her vision for her new role is remarkably servant hearted, reflecting her heart for caring well for others.
We are elated to have Judy Victory on the C127 team, and we know that more kids will experience the Father’s love through strengthened families because she is here. Welcome, Judy!
