The Fall of Hope Rising

When Michelle Wright Rhame was asked to be a foster mother, she saw it as a divine calling. She had always wanted to be a mom, but she couldn’t have children of her own—a heartbreak that contributed to the demise of her marriage. 

She got her opportunity through Hope Rising, a Brenham-based child placement agency and Christian ministry that worked with young victims of sex trafficking. “My prayer request at that time was for the Lord to use me for a greater purpose,” Rhame recalled. “I immediately said, ‘I’m all in. What do I have to do?’”

Rhame began working with Hope Rising as a volunteer with the organization’s therapy horses. “Horses are magical healers,” Rhame likes to say. She was 8 when her family moved to the United States from Panama, and her own horse, Duchess, taught her confidence as she adjusted to a foreign world.

Rhame ...