Fostering Friday: Why Do We Foster?

People begin to foster for many different reasons...

You may remember when I posted a couple weeks ago about how we originally got into fostering. We had a mama come to us for help and it led to the adoption of our son, Tony.

Let me tell you why we are currently fostering:

Back in May of 2016, we said goodbye to a young man who had been in our home for his entire life. From the time he was an infant, he had either been in my daycare or one of our foster children. The last two years before he moved to be with family, were hard times for him. He suffered rejection from his mother, heartache from abandonment and other issues had changed this little boy. In the last few months before he moved, we weren't even sure we wanted to continue fostering...we didn't even know if we had the strength to do it if we wanted it. We were living a nightmare.

As the nightmare came to a close and we emotionally accepted that our little guy was going to be moving from our home to a relative placement, the Lord reached out to Peter and I in different ways. Back in November, my husband wrote a post entitled Why I Foster. Here is a quote from that post about how the Lord reached out to him:

"I’m pretty sure I could take you to the exact spot that it happened. Through all of this experience, God had been talking to my heart, but I had not been willing to accept what he was asking of me. Honestly, I was ready to give up. Who wants to have to deal with that kind of pain and drama all the time? But as we drove down the road that Saturday afternoon, God came along, too. In the gentle way that God directs our paths with his still small voice, he spoke to me in no uncertain terms. “You always talk about wanting to be the hands and feet of Christ. If you really mean that, then THIS is your option. Take it or leave it.” God was asking me to continue fostering – continue opening my home to these most vulnerable members of society. What could I say? I certainly couldn’t say no. I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself." ~Peter S.

For me, it wasn't much different. The Lord dropped a confirmation in my heart that we were to continue fostering, that what we were going through was what serving Him was about for us. That we had a chance to reach out to children and their families and be a light that shines back to Christ. I was just waiting for Him to talk to Peter!

I will always remember that moment that Peter was talking about above. We hadn't even been talking, we had just been sitting there, driving along...enjoy having a peaceful moment after months of trauma due to the foster son we had transitioning out of our home. Peter looked over at me with tears in his eyes and said, "This is what we are supposed to do." and I knew exactly what he was talking about. And I simply replied, "I know."

See...despite the fact that this little boy had broke our hearts over and over again, we knew it wasn't him. We knew it was the trauma he had been through that caused him to lash out with hateful, hurtful words. To be physically violent towards us. This same little boy would curl up in my lap and sob his heart out till he shook because he so desperately wanted to be a part of our family and he was being ripped away. This little boy changed everything we thought about fostering. It changed us permently and we would never be the same again. We would never be able to stand by and watch parents struggle and children flounder because of a broken system.

Will we always foster? I don't know. We pray for each children or set of children before they even come into our homes. That the Lord can use our family to reach their family. How long will He have us do this? I have no idea.

Despite the trauma and heartache that can happen in the system that is called foster care, the positives far outweigh the negatives.

For instance, today I had the blessing of picking up my foster son's mommy and take her with us to go shopping for new glasses for her little man and then go out to lunch. Talking to her about the future, encouraging her when she feels insecure and watching her enjoy her son makes my heart soar! She is such a sweet momma and I love her dearly!

This....this is why we foster. To form relationships....to give hope....to point the way to Christ,




Till next time...

Have a blessed day and embrace the craziness in your life!

Heidi