Video: Meet the Baileys
At 8 years old, Chase was removed from an abusive home and placed into Foster Care. Six years later, Dawn and Brad Bailey saw him featured in a news story focused on foster children and knew God was calling them to adopt Chase.
Although they made every effort to bring him into their family and include him as a son and sibling, they didn’t know how to help him heal from 14 years of trauma. Chase struggled with anger and they saw that something had to change. “How can we show him that we love him, that we’re not the enemy and he doesn’t need to run away from us,” they wondered.
When the Baileys were introduced to Immerse, they began a program called TBRI, Trust Based Relational Intervention, with Immerse’s trauma specialist who is one of a limited number of TBRI practitioners in Arkansas. They learned that trauma victims process events differently, but that through nurturing they can find better ways to connect with others.
Dawn was surprised by what she learned, “We had never dealt with the trauma. These kids have gone through things that are unimaginable. This program has been a huge game-changer for us. I feel like this is something that every foster or adoptive family needs to go through.”
As each day passes, the Bailey’s become a stronger family, and are in the process of adopting a second teenager.