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A GRANDMA FINDS A FRESH START AS A NEW PARENT
Bonnie worried about raising her granddaughter, but God would surprise her. And when Rosabella returned from camp, the real adventure began.
By Lou Haviland
Bonnie still remembers the day her granddaughter Rosabella was born. She loves all her grandchildren dearly, but this time she had the privilege of being in the room as her granddaughter came into the world.
The experience was joyous, but it was also distressing—because Bonnie’s son-in-law was headed to prison. And her daughter, unable to care for her newborn, asked Bonnie to be Rosabella’s guardian.
It was a thrill for Bonnie to see Rosabella as soon as she was born, but she felt apprehension and even inadequacy knowing the baby would go home with her.
How could she raise another baby after she had already raised her own children? Bonnie knew she wasn’t young anymore. What if she didn’t hear the baby cry in the middle of the night? What would happen to this little one—and to Bonnie?
FINDING NEW LIFE
Bonnie owns up to the decisions she’s made throughout her life that were damaging to her.
“I had made some bad choices in my life,” she says. “Really bad choices. It gave me very bad health. Five heart attacks, 10 stents.”
The responsibility of raising her granddaughter seemed to Bonnie like a timely message from God telling her to make better choices about her health.
She and her daughter talked before Rosabella’s birth and decided it would be best for Bonnie to assume temporary guardianship of the baby right from the hospital.
“She gave me a gift,” Bonnie says. “She gave me one of the greatest gifts on Earth.”
Bonnie readily agreed to take Rosabella, but fear filled her mind. From the late-night feedings to changing diapers to knowing what to do if the baby became sick, she feared she might be in over her head.
But her anxieties later proved unfounded because her experience from raising her own babies came right back to her. At the age of 45, she was a new mother of sorts.
As each year passed with Rosabella, Bonnie could see how dramatically her own life was transformed. Before she knew it, Rosabella's baby years were behind her and she was a preteen, with the accompanying sassiness and growing independence of the age. But despite those minor challenges, Bonnie was grateful that her life—which once felt meaningless—now held profound purpose.
HEARING FROM ANGEL TREE
Rosabella was 9 years old when her incarcerated father signed her up for Angel Tree® Christmas, which delivers Christmas gifts to children of men and women in prison through local churches. She received a gift card and a note in her father’s name.
Prison Fellowship® Angel Tree also provides opportunities beyond Christmas, including Angel Tree camping. Bonnie received a call from an Angel Tree camp, inviting Rosabella to an upcoming camp week.
But the call alarmed Bonnie. The thought of sending her granddaughter to a camp far away made her anxious. The two shared the routine of praying together before bed. Bonnie wondered how they could go a whole week without their nightly prayers.
Bonnie occasionally attended a local church and reached out to the pastor to help her know what to do.
The thought of sending her granddaughter to a camp far away made Bonnie anxious.
HORSES AND NEW BEGINNINGS
Her pastor looked into the Angel Tree camp and felt it would be a good experience for Rosabella to spend a week outdoors.
Then there was Rosabella’s lifelong love of horses.
“I want to ride a horse, Grandma, I want to ride a horse,” Bonnie remembers Rosabella repeating through the years.
When she and Rosabella looked through the camp options, they found one that included horses.
Bonnie wanted so much to make this camp week a reality for Rosabella. But even her pastor’s assurance that it was safe didn’t make the decision easy for her. When Rosabella went to camp for the first time in 2023 at Wildwood Ranch, Bonnie was still fighting worry.
THROUGH A CHILD'S EYES
During Rosabella’s weeklong stay at camp, she met other children who also had an incarcerated parent. The camp counselors were caring and allowed for nightly calls so Rosabella and Bonnie could keep up their evening prayers.
What amazed Bonnie even more was how the camp helped Rosabella come out of her shell and talk about the trauma she has experienced. The camp also made it possible for Rosabella to receive ongoing counseling.
And of course, there were the horses, bouncy rafts, rock walls, chickens, cows, and new friends. Rosabella came home a different child. While she had previously kept to herself, she was now open, talking a mile a minute.
“She got to ride her horse for the very first time,” Bonnie said. “She came home flying. She was so excited that there was a horse. A simple little horse made this kid's whole summer.”
In the front of Rosabella’s mind was also her family’s relationship with God.
STARTING OVER
“Grandma, they taught me that you have to go to church to help me thrive,” Bonnie recalls her granddaughter saying after returning from camp.
Bonnie wasn’t comfortable being in church. While she had attended on and off in the past, now with Rosabella, it was about to become a regular occurrence—and that first Sunday was a shaky one.
“I really thought the four walls were going to fall in,” she says. “I really thought the four walls were going to cave.”
Because of her past and the wrong turns she’d made, Bonnie never considered church a safe place. She felt scrutinized. But at this church, it was different, because Bonnie felt loved and accepted. She was baptized last year at Tekonsha Baptist Church and at first was nervous about the experience.
“I had understood my baptism was that you're giving yourself to that church,” she recalls. “But my pastor said, ‘Absolutely not. You're just letting your church know that you're giving yourself to God. You're washing away all your sins, and you're becoming a new you.’”
When she was immersed in the water, Bonnie says she felt something she’d never felt before, as though she had been given another chance to start over in life.
“I was born again,” she says. “Everyone says that, but it was a new me. I sold my soul to the devil many, many, many times. I got to sell my soul to Jesus for once.”
'GOD'S HANDS ON ME'
Rosabella celebrated her 10th birthday recently and this summer, she returned to Wildwood Ranch for another visit with her beloved horses and friends.
It’s almost impossible to tell Bonnie’s story apart from Rosabella, and especially apart from Jesus. One week at an Angel Tree camp brought about so much hope and encouragement that Bonnie never expected.
“Angel Tree changed her life but [it also] changed my life,” Bonnie says. “All because God put His hands on her. That's what she tells the kids. ‘God's put His hands on me.’”
One week at an Angel Tree camp brought about so much hope and encouragement that Bonnie never expected.
