“Even our most haphazard or imperfect offerings…
can be the start of something beautiful.”
~ Jessica, Fostering Great Ideas mentor
Jessica and Maressa’s story is told to celebrate Fostering Great Ideas 15th year of supporting and restoring lives and relationships within the foster care system.
You know those kinds of unremarkable moments in life where two people meet for the very first time?
It could be friends, colleagues or partners, with little to no expectations, only to realize much later – maybe even years – that that moment was the beginning of the rest of their lives. Like some cosmic gears suddenly clicked into place in another dimension, and within that small, insignificant speck of a first encounter, the whole universe rearranged itself to create the path for those two strangers to become everything to each other.
In this story, those two strangers are Jessica and Maressa.
Jessica, a married, coffee-loving counselor in her thirties, hoped to make a difference by volunteering with Fostering Great Ideas. Maressa, a bright, reserved fourteen-year-old navigating the complexities of foster care and girls’ homes, prioritized self-preservation over connection. Their first encounter began on a beautiful Tuesday afternoon in May of 2015, as Jessica rushed to arrive on time, covered in spilled, white paint (her car, too). When she met Maressa, Jessica immediately began over-explaining the paint situation and giggling to break the ice. Teenage Maressa sat listening, arms crossed, completely unamused. Jessica kind of panicked. How could she have guessed that she was meeting her future daughter for the first time?
Over the next several months, and hours of communication and quality time together, their mentor and mentee titles evolved into something deeper: real friends.
They went for walks and hikes, snuck snacks into the movies, booked brunches on the weekends, and drank gallons of coffee. [Which leads us to another life-altering moment in the making: Jessica couldn’t help but pass her coffee obsession onto Maressa, which, in turn, led to Maressa eventually becoming a barista, which led to her working at a coffee shop with a guy named Gabe, which led to them falling in love and getting married (but now we’re jumping too far ahead…)].
Over the course of a year and a half, as Jess and Maressa ate and sipped their way through Greenville together, their bond deepened and slowly transformed each other. While adapting to Maressa’s needs, and practicing unconditional love and patience, Jessica suddenly found herself considering a role she had never imagined before: a foster/adopted mother. Meanwhile, Maressa on the other hand, accustomed to the instability of the foster system, found an unexpected anchor in Jessica and her husband. Access to stable, healthy relationships motivated her to overcome her own vulnerability, eventually allowing her to trust and receive love again, and even accept a life changing invitation from Jessica and Brad: “Would you like to be our daughter?”
Seven years later, so much and so little has changed.
Jessica and Brad grew their little family with the arrival of two beautiful daughters, both doted on by big sister Maressa from day one. And besides being a natural caretaker of her young sisters, Maressa uncovered a number of other talents post-foster care, too. She pursued new interests and relationships, from obtaining her nursing degree (with honors) to creating a circle of strong friendships, to ultimately meeting – and marrying – the love of her life, Gabe. Her journey from a shy, unimpressed teenager to a university graduate and nurse surrounded by a loving family, speaks volumes of the potential impact that strong relationships and bonds can create. And those remarkable bonds can begin in the most unremarkable and unexpected ways.
Watch part of Jessica & Maressa’s conversation here:
We’ve had hundreds of mentors make a difference in a child’s life without becoming their adoptive parents. Simply showing up means the world to so many children in foster care. If you or someone you know is interested in mentoring with Fostering Great Ideas, visit our Life Support mentoring page.
To help fund the important work of healing relationships for those living in foster care, you can support “Shine On”, Fostering Great Ideas 15th Anniversary gala on November 7th. Tickets are available at givebutter.com/shine-on-2025
