Fornits
Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform => Lighthouse of northwest florida (fka VCA )/ Rebekah / Roloff ) => Topic started by: Anonymous on June 12, 2005, 03:14:00 AM
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Hello, my name is Suzanne, I was at the Rebekah home for girls from Oct. 1999 through Jan. 2000. I was sent home because I discovered I was pregnant. I was wondering if there is anyone here who remembers me, or who heard anything about it, I know I was the first girl to ever be there pregnant.
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they probably lied to you, because i was there in the 80's and we had a pregnant girl there.
the 70's girls also had a few that were pregnant.
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Hello!
I was in rebekah home 71=74. When I got there the first dorm had just been built. They use to have trailors on the farm. That is where the pregnant girls stay. Some with workers some with Granny and PaPa. The state came after them and so Roloff moved them to mississippi. Up until that time had encourged these girls to give up thier baby's to a good Christian homes. I think for a small donation. the rest of the girls where moved to a dorm that he had first built. I moved in shorty afterwards.
Of my knowledge I don't know if any of these girls ever found thier children again.
He either took it to his grave or family members have that imfo. Would like to know . One girl got pregnant while in the home. Snuck off with a workers boy. But she was shipped off to mississippi there after. who was over you then?
ever want to chat?
http://www.Chatzy.com/700727175453 (http://www.Chatzy.com/700727175453) passcode freedom Thanks Blue
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I remember hearing about a girl who had came there and was pregnant and got pregnant while at rebekah.From what I remember hearing,she got pregnant durring school somehow.she also tried to have the baby in the bathroom alone.I thought it was the reason we had no doors on the bathrooms.I know they did a pregnacy test on us when arriveing.de-liced us too.I don't re call any girls prenant while I was at Rebekah.I was there 1 yr 15 days.
When I was at Bethesda,they didn't have pregnant girls there either.We did have one girl come in& she stayed 3 days,then went to jubiliee home in TX.
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I know someone who can answer some of your questions. But that was early days. What happen to your baby? If u don't mind me asking.
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several of the first girls saw their babies... but i dont know of the others after 1071
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I was there in 85/86 and know there were other girls who came in pregnant.
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I was at bethesda in 80 and I can tell you there were at least 12 of us pregant at the time. Granted there were more girls there for other things, but we were there also,,,,,Amber
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Did you give your baby up? If so do you regret it? Or do You feel you made the right choice?
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On 2005-08-12 11:21:00, njoynit wrote:
"I remember hearing about a girl who had came there and was pregnant and got pregnant while at rebekah.From what I remember hearing,she got pregnant durring school somehow.she also tried to have the baby in the bathroom alone.I thought it was the reason we had no doors on the bathrooms.I know they did a pregnacy test on us when arriveing.de-liced us too.I don't re call any girls prenant while I was at Rebekah.I was there 1 yr 15 days.
When I was at Bethesda,they didn't have pregnant girls there either.We did have one girl come in& she stayed 3 days,then went to jubiliee
home in TX."
The Pregnant girls at Rebekah where sent to Bethesda In 69 to 70 Hattiesburg Miss. They passed a law that they could no longer house children without a licence. They stared out in a house in Flower Buff I am thinking in Corpus Christi Texas But where then Moved to trailers when Roloff bought the farm. Then they where packed into trailers until they built the home. It was who they where building it for when they moved them. It was how the home started out besides the daycare was with one single pregnant girl. Roloff started asking for help from the church for her and then more followed. I would be curious to know who the first pregnant girl was.
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On 2005-08-12 11:21:00, njoynit wrote:
"I remember hearing about a girl who had came there and was pregnant and got pregnant while at rebekah.From what I remember hearing,she got pregnant durring school somehow.she also tried to have the baby in the bathroom alone.I thought it was the reason we had no doors on the bathrooms.I know they did a pregnacy test on us when arriveing.de-liced us too.I don't re call any girls prenant while I was at Rebekah.I was there 1 yr 15 days.
When I was at Bethesda,they didn't have pregnant girls there either.We did have one girl come in& she stayed 3 days,then went to jubiliee home in TX."
When Jubilee was opened it was for girls pregnant that where 18 and up. It was on the farm. One girl got pregnant while there from a worker boy 1970 but think she was sent to Bethesda. The Wheatherfords where hot about it after that we where no longer free to roam the farm and the fences went up.
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yes I gave my child up. It hurt.A lot.But he found me.
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when I was in rebekah in the eighties, we had to get a pregnancy test prior to being allowed. If a girl was pregnant (I've heard, we didn't get any while I was there) she got sent home.
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I was there 69-71. And I thought it was bad then! I dont understand how the heck all the mind control and coercement was allowed to continue. It just makes me mad to hear kids who have no choice being subjected to that STILL. I am SO sad to hear about women who cannot locate thier children. It is not fair Roloff was given so much power over others.
I'm still angry with Roloff (knew him well) for his need to control others completely. Once, when the quartet was on the Phil Donahue show live in Chicago, a caller called us 'Roloff Robots'. Of course then I defended him, but think it's funny (and true) as hell now.
Roloff used me as an example of girls who had no family to foot the bill, yet out of 'love' he took me in anyway. Love, hell! He made TONS of money off the girls he took with him, and I know I brought in my share. I'm one of the truly lucky ones, who got to travel and all...and I'm still hurt and angry so I can only imagine how most of survivors of that place feel. There were literally dozens of families who wanted to take me in, but when I turned 18 Lester refused to give me any contact information at all, so I left to make life on my own. Can you imagine walking out of 3 years of Rebekah to the real world and being expected to survive??! It was crazy. And when I called them to get advise and stuff they told me not to 'bother' them any more. I was left to find a job, apartment, open a bank account, and learn to fit into society with NO guidance. Needless to say I made my share of naive mistakes and wonder how I stayed off the streets and out of jail.
That was NOT love. God does not leave and forsake us. (Not to mention they all knew my family had done exactly the same thing). There was a hell of a lot of emotional cruelty there. Roloff on the other hand had his own agenda as well as the people who worked for him. It took 35 years and a whole lot of pain, mistakes and self-loathing to figure out how to stand up for myself and develop some solid self-esteem.
There are some good things that came out of the homes, but they fell far short of the picture they want to portray. Teaching closed-minded intolerance is just WRONG!
So that is my 2cents
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thanks for sharing that. I had no idea they would just turn a girl loose at eighteen like that.
they were turds.
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Hello Suzanne, I too was in the Rebekah Home between 1999 and 2001. I remeber you you didnt stay very long it was rumored that you were pregnant and that's why you left. I and other girls remember saying to ourselves that we wished we were pregnant so that we could be sent home as well. I dont wish that now 7 years later I am thankful I was sent to the Home despite all the alegations. The alegations I myself never witnessed and was their from the beginning till my departure 2 years later. I am married with 2 children and work part time and go to college full time and am active in church. I stayed longer because they said I was not ready to go home after my one year program. And I wasn't. I hope you and your family are doing well and that you like many other Rebekah Girls past and present dont dictate how you live your life based on what many might think was an unfortunate and negative expierance. It's a choice wether or not one will live a good or bad life. Its aboslutely more fullfilling with the Lord in your life. I realized in the Rebekah Home that I had a choice and that is the difference that helped me change. I have come across many former Rebekah girls who say the Home forced Bible Principles upon them and they had no choice but to comply. I beg to differ because no matter how influential they were or tried to be in the end the young girls would be out and on their own again and the same choice is still presented to them. The choice to live the same life style as before the Rebekah Home or live a new and renewed life with the Lord or not its still choice.
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My birthmother was in the rebekah home for girls.
I was born 05/4/1970.
I think her name was Betty Diane Fitch.
Did anyone know her??????
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I was there 69-71. And I thought it was bad then! I dont understand how the heck all the mind control and coercement was allowed to continue. It just makes me mad to hear kids who have no choice being subjected to that STILL. I am SO sad to hear about women who cannot locate thier children. It is not fair Roloff was given so much power over others.
I'm still angry with Roloff (knew him well) for his need to control others completely. Once, when the quartet was on the Phil Donahue show live in Chicago, a caller called us 'Roloff Robots'. Of course then I defended him, but think it's funny (and true) as hell now.
Roloff used me as an example of girls who had no family to foot the bill, yet out of 'love' he took me in anyway. Love, hell! He made TONS of money off the girls he took with him, and I know I brought in my share. I'm one of the truly lucky ones, who got to travel and all...and I'm still hurt and angry so I can only imagine how most of survivors of that place feel. There were literally dozens of families who wanted to take me in, but when I turned 18 Lester refused to give me any contact information at all, so I left to make life on my own. Can you imagine walking out of 3 years of Rebekah to the real world and being expected to survive??! It was crazy. And when I called them to get advise and stuff they told me not to 'bother' them any more. I was left to find a job, apartment, open a bank account, and learn to fit into society with NO guidance. Needless to say I made my share of naive mistakes and wonder how I stayed off the streets and out of jail.
That was NOT love. God does not leave and forsake us. (Not to mention they all knew my family had done exactly the same thing). There was a hell of a lot of emotional cruelty there. Roloff on the other hand had his own agenda as well as the people who worked for him. It took 35 years and a whole lot of pain, mistakes and self-loathing to figure out how to stand up for myself and develop some solid self-esteem.
There are some good things that came out of the homes, but they fell far short of the picture they want to portray. Teaching closed-minded intolerance is just WRONG!
So that is my 2cents
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My friends just brought their daughter home from New Beginnings for her 10-day visit after being there for a year. She will be 18 in August and doesn't want to go back and she won't be going back. For those of you interested, if/when I hear reports of how the school has operated over this last year, I will post so that those of you who have friends there will have an idea of how it is currently. You can also check out newbeginningsgirlsacademy.com if you want to see pictures. They are opening another facility in Missouri.
Chai
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The Rebekah home was used as a quasi maternity home in the 60's and 70's, so was Bethesda. I was in the home 85-86, and they were no longer excepting pregnant girls. They now have several maternity homes as well as regular girls homes.
Lorri
They have a maternity home in Tennessee.
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My birthmother was in the rebekah home for girls.
I was born 05/4/1970.
I think her name was Betty Diane Fitch.
Did anyone know her??????
To the poster believed to be the Birth child of Betty Diane Fitch,
I can only hope you check back and find this. I know your post is a few months old but I just found it. Im sorry to say I didnt know your mother. She was there before my time in Rebecah home in the 70's. But I wanted to point you in the direction of a posible venues for finding your Birth Mother. I know first hand being the child of an adoptee how hard the search for Birth family can be. But let me be the first to encourage you IT CAN BE DONE!!!! It is not easy and the laws are designed to make it as hard as posible. But so many are now searching with the internet that I would be willing to bet every day a birth family is found. My mother was adopted in the 1940's. She looked all her life with no sucess, I took up her search when I became 18 and had my own son. It took many years but in 2001 I found our family. And reunited my mother with her siblings after 54 years. I think it was the happiest day of her life. :-) So far I have found 11 of the 12 children. So it can be done. Just wanted to wish you luck in your search. And point you in some areas of Adoption searching.
Bright Blessings and Best of luck!
Rose
P.S.
Do not dismiss any resource out of hand you never know where you will "Find" her.
There is a Yahoo group of roloff babies searching
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/roloff_babies_searching/ (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/roloff_babies_searching/)
Also try Ancestry.com it is a pay site but the message boards are free and the Birth family's board is a great resource.
http://boards.ancestry.com/topics.adoption/mb.ashx (http://boards.ancestry.com/topics.adoption/mb.ashx)
http://boards.ancestry.com/topics.adopt ... es/mb.ashx (http://boards.ancestry.com/topics.adoption.adoptees/mb.ashx)
http://boards.ancestry.com/topics.adopt ... es/mb.ashx (http://boards.ancestry.com/topics.adoption.bfamilies/mb.ashx)
http://boards.ancestry.com/topics.adopt ... on/mb.ashx (http://boards.ancestry.com/topics.adoption.adoption/mb.ashx)
David T. Gray is an amazing person! :-)
His Adoption regisry is HUGE!
http://adoptionsearching.com/ (http://adoptionsearching.com/)
3 areas at :
http://reunion.adoption.com/ (http://reunion.adoption.com/)
http://registry.adoption.com/ (http://registry.adoption.com/)
http://adoptees.adoption.com/ (http://adoptees.adoption.com/)
http://forums.adoption.com/ (http://forums.adoption.com/)
www.adoptednetwork.com (http://www.adoptednetwork.com)
http://d.webring.com/t/Hearts-Of-Adoption-WebRing (http://d.webring.com/t/Hearts-Of-Adoption-WebRing)
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Rose, you rock. You are one of the best people I've met online.
Yvette
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Hey Rose, glad you are keeping up with things here in fornits.
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:bump: Aw Yvette
I wish I was all that but I am just me. I try my best to help where ever I can. And goodness knows I had my share of help from others to survive. :shamrock: Just Payin It Forward........ :peace:
Luv N Hugs to You! :rose:
Rose
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Hey Rose, glad you are keeping up with things here in fornits.
:nods: As often as I can any way....
It wont let me in half the time
Lol But I keep :wall:trying. :-)
Im never far from any where I might reconect!
:cheers: Rose