Often times when individuals or couples talk about their decision to become a foster parent they hear things like,

“I couldn’t do that. I could never love a child and then have to give them back.”
“Oh, that takes a special person.”
“You’re a better Christian than me.”
“It takes a strong person to do that.”
“But, what about your own children?” and “Why?”

Here are a few of our thoughts regarding such statements.

We are not special, nor better Christians.  In fact, our brokenness, failure, and lack of being a ‘perfect Christian’ has often times paralyzed us from moving forward.

We believe it will hurt like CRAZY to “love and release,” but if we do not do it, then WHO will?

We believe all we have is from God and belongs to God; including our home, our resources and even our CHILDREN.  So why would we shelter them–when God has given us the opportunity to expose them and teach them to live out their faith visibly and wholeheartedly?

We believe obedience is never easy, comfortable, convenient, nor safe.

As for the “Why?”

We believe our story is one of adoption and as adopted children of God, we must live out the love, mercy, grace, hope, and adoption that has been given to us. (Romans 8, Gal 4:5-6)

We believe it is mandated in Scripture for followers of Christ to take care of the “least of these,” “fatherless,” and “orphan” in some form or fashion. (Matt 25:31-46, James 1:27, Psalm 68:5-6)

We believe God has continually broken our hearts for and exposed us to children who need someone to love and protect them, while giving them a safe place to heal.

And, then there is the current Need,

• Approximately *400,000 youth in the United States will go to bed tonight in a Foster Home, Emergency Shelter, Residential Treatment Center, Psychiatric Hospital or even in the office of a state case worker.
• Approximately *101,000 youth are lingering in the foster care system, waiting to be adopted.
• Approximately **600,000 youth are served in the U.S. foster care system every year.

The numbers are HUGE and such numbers are sometimes hard to wrap our minds around.  So, we went searching for the need in our own city and we found that there are over 360 youth in Foster Care, and within a 2 hour radius of our house, there are over 1,000 youth in foster care from all the surrounding communities combined.  That is our backyard, our community, and our children.

We are imperfect, inadequate, and not really special at all.  But, we have a Father whose heart breaks for these children and He seeks to find strong, loving, and safe homes for each and every one of them.

A local Pastor recently prayed, “Father you are the author of a better story…”  We believe this and we believe our lives are the tangible pages that He seeks to write His story on.  We also believe children in foster care deserve the opportunity to have their ‘better story’ written——It is our hope and prayer that our family may provide the pages for such a story as we move past ourselves to love and serve others. 

*http://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/cb/afcarsreport20.pdf

**http://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/cb/trends_fostercare_adoption2012.pdf