We had the good fortune of connecting with Wendy Chin and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Wendy, what’s one piece of conventional advice that you disagree with?
That you need to have a clear idea of what you’re doing or where you’re headed before launching out, and that you need to have a source of income before you start. My husband Willis and I started Heart & Home for the sole purpose of filling the gaps we experienced as foster parents ourselves. When we started fostering, we knew no one else who was fostering. When our first foster baby arrived, we received no gifts or help (a stark contrast to when we brought home our first biological child). And each time our foster children arrived, they came with almost nothing. We wanted to change these things. We had no budget, and no idea of what Heart & Home would become. We just knew real people with real needs, and we wanted to start meeting them. So we started by hosting a monthly Support Group at our church. That little group grew into a larger community of friends. Two years later we wanted to provide families with an easy and dignified way of shopping through the donations our community would periodically give – baby gear, clothing and the occasional crib. So we found a “piece of junk” trailer on Facebook marketplace, bought and renovated it to become a beautiful space for foster and adoptive families to come and shop, for free. It was a small team of foster dads and their families who faithfully showed up every weekend to renovate that trailer all summer. And there were many local shops and stores who were happy to donate their products – paint, wood, flooring – to make our trailer the “boutique” it is today. Now, we actually have a brick and mortar shop in Lake Forest, too!

Alright, so let’s move onto what sets you apart as a nonprofit?
What sets us apart is that we’re more of a community movement than we are a nonprofit. We speak from the heart about a problem that’s very human and solvable. There are abused children in our community. They need help. And help comes in a range of ways. We don’t believe that everyone needs to become a foster parent to solve the foster crisis. But everyone has a part, a gift, a piece of the puzzle. I think that simple understanding moves and motivates people, as it should. Willis and I are not salespeople. We’re storytellers. We share our story of being foster parents, and the stories of the kids in the system, and its these stories that motivate others to join the movement and do their part to care for the vulnerable kids in our community.

Heart & Home exists because the lives of ALL children matter. There are children in our community with broken families and broken hearts. We’re compelled to serve them not out of a sense of pity or obligation, but because in our own way, “we get them.” We were broken and lost. We knew a lack of love. We’ve felt abandoned. And we’ve been found. Gloriously found by Christ, adopted into the family of God, and restored to a life of hope. That’s life-changing news worth sharing, particularly with children who have lost their first source of love: their birth parents. We have great respect for the children who come from such trauma. They truly inspire us to “keep up the good work,” even when we get tired and discouraged. They’re worth it. We’re proud to serve a loving God, and an incredible population of children.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
We’re a biracial family, with multiple ethnicities represented, including Korean and Salvadorian/Mexican. So we would take them for some Korean BBQ and hispanic food, and then to the beach, because who doesn’t love the beauty of the water??!!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Heart & Home exists because we live in a generous community who steps up when we have a tangible need. For example, when we needed to tow the trailer from San Diego County to Orange County to begin renovating it, we needed someone with a small tractor to dig it out of the ditch it was stuck in. A friend called a friend, and soon enough we had someone show up with his small tractor. Then our trailer needed flooring, and someone who owned a flooring business not only donated the materials, but installed it as well. At our annual Moms Night Out, we have so many volunteers who give their time and talent to bless the foster and adoptive mamas who attend – hair stylists, holy yoga instructors, and hand manicurists. We are so grateful for every single one of them!

Website: www.heartandhome4kids.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heartandhome4kids/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HeartandHome4kids

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutLA is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.