The Protestant Children's Home was built back in 1926 for the grand cost of $200,000. It was situated on fifty acres of land. There were eight ladies who had the original dream. The PCH supported itself by farming and when people died, they would leave their house, car and other possessions to the PCH.

But, somewhere along the way, as the founding members died so did the dream until the home closed and became the Woodlawn Nursing Home in the 1960s. It remained the Woodlawn nursing home until the 2000s.

For a time it was a mental health facility, but this facility was able to build its own new building and moved out. Then for a time it was a nursing home again but could not meet new health standards so it shut down.

Now for three years this building has stood abandoned. It has been stripped of anything valuable. Many of its walls have been torn up. Three different times people have tried to set fire to it. And the owner tried to knock it down several years ago.

But as each day goes by, the passion for returning it to its glory days dies especially in a down economy.

The owner wants to try to knock it down again. This time the forces that stopped it from being torn down last time will be powerless to stop it this time. They have had three years to find funding and do something with the building but have not.

And each day the outside of the building looks worse and worse.

Is it finally curtains for this old building?

About three years ago, I first saw the building and fell in love with it. You know what I mean. I have prayed for a miracle now for almost three years. But God has not yet seen fit to answer my prayer. The price has dropped down to $500,000. The four acres the building sits on is worth this much without the building.

I have gone to the building and walked around it many times praying and contemplating what it must have been like for children there in the beginning. How many faces stared out the windows waiting each week for someone to want them? For how many was this the only home they ever knew? And when they left, how many ever thought or think of the years they spent in this home?

A home, no matter what kind it is or where it is, is a special thing. We always want a home to return to when we come home from college, war, or life in general. When we are worn and torn by the strife of life, having a home to return to just seems to invigorate us.

My parents sold the home I grew up in a few years ago. I understand why they did it. But now Christmas and Thanksgiving are just not the same in the new house. There are no childhood memories in the new house. So, I do not go home as much as I used too.

Home is a special place.

Today, many children, through no fault of their own, find themselves in the system, being moved from one place to another. They will grow up with no childhood home or memories to return to. They will have no home to take their children to and tell them about their adventures as a child growing up in the home. They have no special place.

I would like to turn this building back into a home. A place where the child will grow up with the love and nurturing he or she needs. A place where children can return to when life has run them over. A place where they and their children will always be welcome. A place where they can return to and tell their children about their adventures in the grand old building.

Yes, it would be cheaper and easier to build from scratch, but then the memories in the walls of this magnificent building would be lost forever. Its splendor would disappear like the fading sun.

I have done some Internet surfing and it seems that in Texas, and probably other States as well, there is a need for housing and guidance for young adults aging out of Foster Care.  One day they are a Ward of the system and the next they are on their own.  Too many end up drifting into drug use and prostitution.

I think that this building would make a good home for young adults in this position.  There are social programs that are available to help this young adults (at least there are now--some maybe cut in the future as budgets dwindle) but they have no "Parent" to help guide them.  This building could be used to house these young adults but also give them a "Coach" to help guide them as they make the transition into adulthood.

It would be much cheaper than having them end up in the criminal system.