Carl Reeder

Background

About Carl Reeder

I have been married to my beautiful bride for 17 years, and we have two teenage children. I have been working with kids and teens for the past 20 years. During High School I began to discover my desire to work with children. At this time I did not know exactly how that desire would begin to unfold, but I knew that I was being called in this direction. When in High School I took time to volunteer at my church working with kids at our Vacation Bible School. After graduation I had the opportunity to take a two week mission trip to Sao Paulo Brazil. While in Brazil I visited a few different orphanages, and it was this experience that solidified my call to work with children. During college I took every opportunity I had to gain experience. Each summer I worked as the Youth Leader at my church. With this role I organized and put together the summer Vacation Bible School, and I also taught the Youth Group and organized their activities and events. This was a great time of learning and these summers began to prepare me for the next chapter. My senior year of college I met my bride to be. She grew up babysitting, working as a nanny and teacher, and had a similar desire and calling to continue working with children in some capacity. It was on our first anniversary trip that we were introduced to houseparenting. Houseparenting takes place at a residential school. We became the parents of a home housing 12 children, and then in the next two years our two children were born. In a few short years we had 14 children in our home. My wife and I were houseparents for a total of 15 years. During this time we were asked to, and had the opportunity to train other houseparents and be involved in their interview process. I ran a few different after school programs including soccer training, a Biblical Manhood study, and a Middle School Youth Group. Currently I am working at a residential school and overseeing two of our homes at the school. I train our houseparents, run family meeting sessions and training for parents, and teach our Physical Education class. My wife and I are still involved in our Youth Group at church. We are the organizers of the events for the youth, but mainly focus our time with the parents. We teach "parent connect" times. During this time we get to share some of the experiences and knowledge we have gained from working with teens. Our newest, and most recent, journey has been stepping into fostering. We completed our foster training in January 2022. We are thankful for our home to continue to be a place where others are welcomed.