Heartland Children's Home has been a loving foster home for more than 140 children over the past 19 years. The founders, Mike and Ruth Schwartz, and several round the clock nurses provide care for up to twelve medically fragile children at any given time.
These children suffer from complications of shaken baby syndrome, prenatal drug exposure, HIV and AIDS, and other diseases and disabilities. The children are often dependent on feeding tubes, ventilators, and medication for survival. Many of the children are disabled because of abuse or neglect by their birth parents.
Heartland is a place that provides these children with a loving family, often in stark contrast to the neglectful environments they came from. Heartland is located on eighteen heavily wooded acres of land outside of Boerne, Texas in the world famous Texas Hill Country. It's a tranquil place where the air is fresh and the skies are beautiful. There are farm animals to help with child development for the more fortunate children that have the ability to venture outside of the home. There is individualized special care provided for the ones that have more medical needs and don't share the same blessings. Services are provided to the children from birth to eighteen years of age.
Heartland also assists families in the community that find themselves overwhelmed physically and financially with the special medical and developmental needs of their children. There is a great need when caring for handicapped and terminally ill children for education of parents and significant others. To be able to ask questions and receive understandable answers to these questions can lighten the burden that some of these families face on a day to day basis.
Ages: Birth - 18 yrs,