Hello there! This blog is very sporadic... But I have a feeling it is about to be much more consistent. Well, maybe not. I was going to say our lives are going to get very busy and interesting soon but then again... Our life is ALWAYS busy and interesting. Maybe that is why this blog is very sporadic?
Lesson #14: We are called to be foster parents!
This is the biggest news I have ever posted via blog! We are going to be foster parents!
To everyone we know, this is the first you have heard of this. We have never talked with anyone about becoming foster parents. It's like when you are for real serious about something you don't joke about it... Like when you are not considering getting married you joke about getting engaged and when you are an old married couple and laugh when people ask if you are ever going to tie the knot. But then the day comes when you start to think about getting married and there is no more laughing. No one jokes about it and if it comes up you quickly change the subject. Because all of a sudden it isn't a joke and this is a for real serious topic now. For us, this has been a for real serious topic for a long time. We have talked about this for 3, 4, 5 years now... I have lost track. If you are doing the math in your head, yes we have only been married 2 years now. So, a long time.
Why now? Well, God just has planned it that way.
See, in February we moved into our first home, like a real house with windows and everything! (See that was a blog worthy topic... Especially when you consider the fact we flipped it and it took us 9 months to do it and there were so many before and after pics I could have posted and how fun it would have been to track it on a blog... Ugh I struggle with social media)
ANYWAY... We had lots of people help us... I mean LOTS. We had people help demo, pull nails, paint, brainstorm, shop, clean, you name it! One day I was thanking a friend who had been at our house painting several days in the past couple weeks and asked her why she was so kind to us! We were giving nothing in return... Just our love and a billion thank yous. After she stopped laughing about the fact that she is child free while she is here she got real serious. She said, "I know that you will do great things in this home. You will bless many people with this home and that is why I want to help you get there." I don't know if she remembers saying this, but it has stuck with me ever since. I bet I think about it at least once every other day.
After we lived in our home... 2 months? We started thinking. Now that we are in this awesome house, we have 2 bedrooms. What can we use it for to use our home to the full potential? How can we honor all the hands that went into making this home for us?
This brought up the subject of foster care... again. So we started talking again. Is this for us? Well, Matt sees kids who are effected by the foster care everyday. This puts a passion in him to help. He works with the kids who are in the foster care system and he cares for them. He has seen how a foster home can negatively effect a child. And then there is the fact that he LOVES LOVES LOVES kids and who could be a better foster dad than him??
And me, I work with their parents. Moms who have lost their children or given up their children because of the situations they are in. I help them to fight their way back to self sufficiency so that one day they can have their children back in their arms. I have sat with moms who have cried tears over the children they gave up because as their momma, they knew it was for the best. Who can have more compassion for the parents of the children they are fostering than someone who works with their peers everyday? The passion was there. Our want to be foster parents was there.
But, is this the right time? It wouldn't hurt to call and ask when the training was. Maybe we could just look up the requirements and see if we even qualify. It probably is too soon. We have Haiti this summer, we don't know our job situations, we are really busy with the house still, but we can just check.
So we started reading and reading. I printed a booklet for us to read and we read websites word for word. We met all the requirements.
I called and asked for the dates for the next training. After many phone calls and voicemails and wrong numbers I finally got the answer: the next training in your area begins at the end of the summer.
Whoa, God is good.
The end of the summer, after Haiti, after our jobs would fall into place, after the house calmed down (yea, keep dreamin!), and it would give us time to prepare. All God wanted right then from us was to take that first step. We were scared to death that He wanted us to go the whole way, to run the full length, but He knew we weren't ready. I should really trust Him more, give Him some more credit.
So, on August 8 we went to our first meeting. We attended our first training on August 15. We feel called to foster newborns and we are so excited to follow through. So the house that is called for a higher purpose will be used in its full potential. That guest bedroom will be transformed into a nursery and the kitchen cabinets will hold bottles. The dining room table will be a place for paperwork and documentation. The living room will be a place to rock little ones to sleep. Our home will be someone else's home while they cannot safely be in their own.
We have 9 weeks of training, 2 home visits, and lots of paperwork standing between now and our first placement. Until then I will continue to read blog after blog and article after article to soak up all the knowledge I can to prepare.
But, I know that nothing can truly prepare us for reality. The reality of having someone else's child in your arms, praying that their stay with you is short, and letting them go when they leave. Nothing can prepare us for the burdens we will help the little ones we welcome into our home carry. Nothing can prepare us for the stories we will hear and the tragedies we will see.
But we can trust that God has a plan and that we are a part of the big picture.
"Spirit lead us where our trust is without borders... Lead us deeper than our feet could ever wonder..."
