First placement

There is no fear in love.  Perfect love casts out all fear.  1 John 4:18.  

 

We’ve done some respite and now we’ve had our first placement.  Last weekend, we welcomed a 3 day old baby into our home.  He was a joy to have around for a few days.  We all wanted him to stay, but he went back home.  There are lots of emotions left behind, but we are thankful we could love him for a short time and give him good care.

What I have learned so far from fostering:

•  I can love a child that is not mine, just like they were mine.
• I can still hold a baby in one hand while doing household chores with the other.
• My bio children were VERY large as babies.
• I can pray for a Mama who made mistakes and consider how much she loves and misses her baby.
• It sure is nice to not be solely responsible for food production of a baby and easier to take care of a baby without having to go through delivery.
• I caught a glimpse of what God did for me in giving up his only son.
•  I have a fantastic husband who is willing to love on, diaper change, feed, burp and get up throughout the night for a baby that is not his.
•  My girls are wonderful, loving and welcoming to every child that has come to our house.
•  I can give a baby back to his Mama.
• I had no fear when this baby was here, I just loved.
• My girls will have loss in their lives.  I am thankful to be able to show them how to lean on God and how he can strengthen and restore.
• I have not completely given my children to God, in my heart.  I am working on this now.
• This is exactly where we are needed!
• Tears are healing.
• God is LOVE.
• God is good ALL THE TIME!
• I miss that baby.

 

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Planted to Bear Fruit

The peach, apple, and walnut trees growing in our yard are grafted.  A graft is the removal of a part of one tree which is then joined to another tree.  This creates a joint that can move and grow with the new tree.  The new tree often produces more or better fruit than the original tree.   However, there is a cost.  There is damage to the trees and great care and nurturing of the wounded trees must be taken to assure proper growth.

Picture a family tree with roots, large limbs, branches constantly growing and changing with the seasons. We idealize our family trees as productive, fruit-bearing, and full of healthy foliage.  However, family trees have dry rot, disease, insect damage, or have experienced severe storm damage leading to the death to part or all of the tree.  This comparison of our ancestry to trees is not a perfect representation in many ways, but can help us visualize our connections.

Over the past two years we began a journey after researching the plague of child trafficking and the connection it has with children who are not solidly connected to a family.  The statistics in the U.S. alone are discouraging and children aging out of foster care are particularly susceptible.  Our initial thought was, “what can we do to help?”  The thought of this level of evil is overwhelming and sickening.  Once the fog of anger, sadness, and helplessness burned off, we tried to think realistically of what we could do with our resources, in our current situation.  Since we were already considering growing our family through adoption, we decided that we could help at least one child by connecting with them and providing a safe place to grow.  In order to do that we would pursue adoption through the foster care system.  As we have prayed, prepared, trained, studied, and waited, we saw a great need for foster families.  As a result, we are intentionally opening our home to love and nurture foster children.

God created a way for us to be reconnected through the redemptive love of his Son.  In the same way, healing can take place in the life of a child who has experienced great loss.  Our hope is to share in the grief and loss of these little ones in order for them to know they are wanted, loved and cherished by God and us.  We also look forward to working with their parents to show them God’s grace and life changing forgiveness. If reunification is possible, we pray that God will help us to unselfishly return them home.  We are still open to adoption if that is ever an option.  Above all, we want these precious branches to be attached to a tree they can grow and bear fruit on.

God has really been patient as we gradually came around to this path.  We have peace about this decision!  We welcome your prayers as we take this step in the coming months.