Page 46 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2017 - Online Magazine

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Senior Senior

The Value of Listening

by Juliet Owuor

John Sorelle is was, and still is working on graduate
an elder at our degrees at Texas Tech. He works
church. He and different jobs, and my mother also
his wife Valerie works to help support our family of 9.
have always taken The Sorelles have been very supportive
an interest in all along the way.
helping children
and young people. I would like to describe the way John
They were youth has personally helped me recently. I
leaders off and have realized lately how comforting
on for 40 years. it is for children to have choices made
After his own children were grown, the for them. My entire school career, all I
couple became foster parents in various did was what I was told, trusting it was
Presbyterian children’s homes around the right thing to do. Now that I’m in
the state. They did this for six years, my senior year, I must begin to make
commuting to Austin and San Antonio decisions on my own. While you are
and wherever else they were needed. a child, you don’t have many choices.
Then they became house parents at You simply follow the rules. Because of
Buckner Children’s Home here in this, it is easy to have feelings of anxiety
Lubbock for a few years. They still keep toward making decisions. Fortunately, I
up with many of those foster children, have someone in my life who helps me
and even have foster grandchildren simply by lending an ear. John Sorelle
now. Valerie works at Ronald McDonald has helped me understand that it is okay
House, and she to make a decision, even if one cannot
and John continue label it right or wrong. He has shown me
to have a heart how to consider what I think or feel.
to work with
children. John recently asked me a simple
question, “What do you want to do?”
My own I was surprised that someone was
experience with genuinely interested in my thoughts.
John began when I explained that I want to go to Texas
our family came Tech to study engineering. He asked
to the U.S. from whether I was going to live on campus.
Kenya. My dad I had been struggling with that one. He

46 Lubbock Senior Link