“There was a time in 2011, at a red light in our little town of Warrenton, VA that I haven’t told many people about. My wife’s [eating disorder] struggles had surfaced after seven years of marriage. Things had gotten so bad that I was worried to the point of being physically ill, and in that moment in my car the only thing I could think of to do was to ask God how to save my wife. In that moment of sheer desperation, I felt what can only be described as a warm, liquid hug. I was filled with a sense of hope so overwhelming that it got me home safely that day.

That hope made me know that in the long run everything would be OK. That hope got me to hang on while my wife dug her way out of the hole those nine years ago. That hope got me to hang on in 2016 when things resurfaced. That hope got me to hang on in 2017, 2018, and 2019 when things had gotten so bad that my wife had to go to treatment. That hope got me to hang on while trying to work, run a household, and be there for our three kids acting as a temporary single parent for a total time of nine months. The hope is what got me to hang on when our kids were sick during the middle of the night and no one else was there, or when I worked through the circus of getting all of them to the bus on time each morning, or the night I thought I was having a heart attack from the stress of it all. That hope is what began to shine brighter and stronger as [Charis] came into my wife’s life. Today that hope is being able to think about the future and things we want for our family and how to turn something that was bad into something good.

Hope. That is what [Charis] is about. By way of your time, gifts, and contributions in whatever form they may be, you are giving hope to people you don't even know and may never will. But I promise you that your efforts, time, and love will give hope to the girls who come here, and also to their families. My hope and prayer now is that others will experience what my wife and I have and that the plan for the lives be fulfilled by way of hope.” - TB