Dear To My Heart....Fostering...

This week we found out that the twins we currently have will be moving on to be with family.
This is one of the bittersweet moments of fostering. We have had them for almost three months. By time they leave, they will be going on four months of being in our home. It's crazy to think that these little bundles of joy have been with us this long....time flies when you are sleep-deprived!

Frankly, you want to see children with their family. I don't think it is always a healthy situation. However, in most cases, the family is the best choice for kiddos, if they can't be with their parents. In this case, I think this family wants these kiddos more than anything and are very anxious to be a part of their lives. That's the sweet part!

The bitter part is saying goodbye! You get so attached to these young ones. I know it makes zero sense to people outside of fostering. "How can you allow yourself to get attached to them? Isn't it hard?" Absolutely. It hurts. And it should. If you can give yourself freely and openly to another human being, without holding anything back, it should hurt.

Studies have been done that show if a child can bond with their caregiver in the first months of his/her life, it is *almost a guarantee that they can bond with others. Whether it is another caregiver, relatives, friends, spouses etc...any relationship you have and how it works....goes back to the bonding that happened in those first few months of life.

*I said "almost" earlier because there are other factors that happen later in life that can permanently damage how a child bonds with those around him.

That being said...recently I explained the hurt of loving unconditionally for such a short time like this:

If God could love me so unconditionally that He would send His Son to be the sacrifice for my sins.... how could I ever think of not loving someone else the same way?

God created each of us to love and be loved. 

There is a song by Brandon Heath that I think helps explain how we can allow ourselves to get attached to these little ones. It's called Give Me Your Eyes: