Last fall we joined a couple’s bible study through our
church going over the book ‘Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God’.
The overall theme of the book was about how it would look like to put God first
in our lives above everything else. If God called us to leave the comfort of
our home to a far away land would we be obedient? If he called us to love on
the unlovable would we say yes? Would we be willing to let go of our most
prized possessions?
We were particularly challenged with the many times the
bible talks about caring for the poor, the orphans and the widows. On one
assignment we were asked to write down the poorest person we knew of that was a
part of our lives. And surprisingly the only person I could think of, had a
very nice house with a pool and drove an SUV.
Not that this was a bad thing and it is certainly not to pass on any
judgment, but it was a far cry from the poor described in the bible.
In our lives there was no naked person to clothe, no hungry
child to feed, no thirsty person to give a drink to. Well I thought, the only
way to find someone that poor I must travel to Africa on a mission trip! And
I certainly don’t want to do that with two little boys. Maybe later on in
life. I’m sure God will understand.
But we continued to pray about it for the remainder of the
fall. Something in our hearts was stirred and we truly wanted to figure out if
God was calling us to do something more (And although we have been involved
for years with Everyday Blessings, a foster facility in the area, we usually just go once a year on Andrew's birthday).
As a group we looked into different opportunities to serve-
I Matter Too, A Kids Place, The Woman’s Place, etc. For us to be
involved would mean giving up our Saturdays or time away from each other as a
family on a regular basis. And if anyone knows my husband they would know that
he is a big family man, and he wasn't ready to give this up. So we
continued to pray. Did we just need to sacrifice our time or was there
something else for us?
One night I had one of those lightbulb moments when I
often kept coming back to foster parenting. Was this really what we were being called to do? Ha! I thought. My
husband will never go for this. God if you want this to happen, you have some
serious work to do.
The following week while out on a date, I asked Steve what
he thought of the idea of foster parenting. And much to my surprise he was open to
it! We continued to pray about it for the next few months. And as of this
January 24th we began the process.
We know foster parenting is outside the box. We know there
is a risk in it. We understand these children don’t come from good family
backgrounds. That they have been neglected, heard and seen things they
shouldn’t have at their age, often not loved the way they should’ve been, and
perhaps even physically and/or emotionally abused. But at the end of the day, these children are not sexual predators that are going to hurt our family.
These children are longing to be loved, longing for stability, longing for
their biological parents, or perhaps just simply hungry. As we went through the
foster training, we went over several real life case studies where children are
just left to fend for themselves for days with little food or water. As it
turns out I don’t have to go all the way across the world to feed the hungry or
clothe the naked. They are right here, just a few miles away from our home.
We will start off with respite and short-term foster
parenting. We will be taking on children five or younger. Our two boys will
continue to be our number one priority, and I pray that they will be incredibly
blessed through being a part of this. We hope for opportunities to teach them
about serving Christ and loving others. We also hope that we will be a blessing to
those children coming through our doors, even if all we get to do is pray for
them during the time they are in our home.
We've finished with the training and are waiting on
some final paperwork (About 90-95% done) but it will probably still take another month or two before being licensed. We don't know how it will all work out or how long we'll do this for. It might be just for a season or for the rest of our lives, but we want to give a try and give it our best.
I am excited about starting this journey. I want to be out of my comfort zone. I want
to take a leap of faith not sure of how it’s all going to work out. I don’t
want to go through the 'motions', I want a life of adventure and taking risks when they should be taken. And I can’t wait to watch God come through and
do something far more incredible than I can imagine.
"He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger or temporary resident and gives him food and clothing. Therefore love the stranger and sojourner, for you were strangers and sojourners..." Deuteronomy 10:18-19
"He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger or temporary resident and gives him food and clothing. Therefore love the stranger and sojourner, for you were strangers and sojourners..." Deuteronomy 10:18-19
Will be posting two more entries on foster parenting:
Foster Parenting- III: The
impact of loving someone for a short time
