Forever Family Festival Friday at Storybook Farm

Storybook Farm, the equestrian-based program that offers free therapeutic care to children with chronic or terminal illnesses and disabilities, will celebrate the institution that is perhaps the cornerstone of their ministry — the family.

On Friday, the farm will host the Forever Family Festival to praise families created through adoption and fostering. Storybook Farm director of development Lucy S. Little said the event and name, “forever family,” holds special significance.

“When a child wants to be adopted, what they wish and pray for is a forever family,” Little said.

Lee County Youth Development Center social worker Katie Rabson, who has volunteered and worked as an intern at Storybook Farm in the past, agrees.

“A little girl that was recently placed with another foster home said, ‘I hope this is my forever family,” Rabson recalled. “These kids desire so much to be a part of a family and have
stability.

“Children in foster care have many physical needs, but their ultimate need more than anything else is permanence with a loving caring family,” said Rabson, who plans to attend the Forever Family Festival.

The festival will feature several activities, including hayrides, visits with animal friends at Storybook Farm, arts and crafts, snacks and a visit from representatives of Auburn University’s athletics department. A proclamation will also be read at the event declaring Friday as Storybook Farm Forever Family Day, Little said.

Storybook Farm’s horse-mounted ministry has traditionally reached out to families of children coping with mental, physical or emotional challenges.

“Now we feel like there’s something we can reach out to children who are going through adoption, going through fostering or families that have already been created through it,” said Little, who herself is in the process of adopting a Liberian and a Ghanaian child.

Rabson and Little hope the festival will help serve as a resource for prospective parents going through the adoption process regardless of the social or ethnic background of a child in need of a family.

“And that’s what Storybook Farm is all about,” Little said. “The horses don’t see a child’s color or know about their past home life. They only see the spiritual connection they have with the
children who visit.

“As people, we’re much the same in the sense that while we come in many different forms, we all have the need to be loved and be a part of a family,” Little said.

If You Go
What: Forever Family Festival at Storybook Farm
When: Friday from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m.
Where: Storybook Farm, 300 Cusseta Road in Opelika
For more information, contact 334-444-5966 or e-mail hope@storybook-farm.org.