A Light in the Darkness: Blake’s Story

When Blake Wallis came to Coyote Hill Foster Care Ministries as a child, he learned what it felt like to experience safety.

“I don’t think before I’d been at Coyote Hill Foster Care Ministries that I knew what a good life was,” Blake said. “I don’t know if I knew what safety felt like. I don’t know if I knew how to be comfortable, not only around other people, but in my own skin. To feel good enough, to feel as if you were the one that mattered.”

Before he and his brothers, Michael and Jake, moved to live at Coyote Hill Foster Care Ministries, they experienced significant trauma after their mother passed away from a battle with cancer.

“My first memory as a human was looking for my mother as she had just passed,” Blake shared. “I was searching her bed. I was looking in the sheets as if maybe she was just hiding underneath.”

After his mother’s death, Blake’s father remarried, and they moved to a new home with a new woman and new children.

“My brothers and I quickly got cast to the wayside,” Blake said.

Blake shared that there was one room in their house where he and his brothers stayed. There were no windows, and there was only one light, which connected to a baby monitor. At night, when they could hear that everyone else had gone to sleep, they would sneak out to the kitchen and eat the food that had been left out for the family dog.

Eventually, Blake and his brothers entered foster care, and they moved to Coyote Hill Foster Care Ministries after about a week of staying in a short-term, emergency home. Blake credits Michael, his older brother, with getting them out of their unsafe environment.

“Michael is the pillar, he’s my rock still to this day,” Blake said. “He looked out for me and treated me almost as his son.”

Blake reflects that he warmed up pretty quickly at Coyote Hill Foster Care Ministries, despite having his guards up.

“The biggest reason for that is Amy and Jacob Kingery,” Blake said. “There’s no bigger factor in this than having [them] as our house parents . . . they are some of the sweetest people I’ve ever met.”

While Michael aged out of foster care and moved out on his own, Blake and Jake lived at Coyote Hill Foster Care Ministries from 2004 until 2007.Then, they were adopted by another family, where they lived for seven years. Unfortunately, they experienced abuse in this home, and eventually were removed. They moved in with Michael when Blake was sixteen.

At this point, Blake and Michael made a plan together so that he could be as prepared for the world as possible when he turned eighteen. Immediately after graduating high school, Blake enlisted and became a Signals Intelligence Analyst in the US Military. Now, he is studying Broadcast Journalism at the University of Missouri.

“In my obituary, when I’m done, if it is filled with all of the success and all of the credits that I hope it is, it better have its own credit line down there for [Michael and Amy and Jacob],” Blake said. “None of this would be possible without them.”

2023 Boots ‘n Bids — Celebrating Milestones and Making History

On Friday, October 6, we had a record-breaking evening at our annual Boots ‘n Bids charity auction and dinner. Coyote Hill Foster Care Ministries raised over $250,000 through our silent auction, live auction, and generous donations. Our 17th annual Boots ‘n Bids, presented by TIG Advisors, focused on protecting childhood for children who are in […]

Climbing Physical and Emotional Mountains

Three weeks after Kenna and Brady received their license to foster, they were waiting for a phone call to welcome a child into their home, so they decided to call Brittany, Hannibal Area Coordinator. “She told us that there was actually a 5-year-old girl coming into care that day,” Kenna said. “That was a […]