Called to foster care…..
That is what a lot of people would say about how they began their journey, but I don’t know if it is really what we would have said in the beginning. Adoption had been a topic of conversation between John and I before we were even married. We were open to the idea but we weren’t sure if it was a path God would take us down. Foster care was not even a word that was in our vocabulary.
Our oldest son was probably 5 or 6 when he started talking to us about his desire for us to adopt. It started off with little conversations that we would just respond, we will pray about it. To be honest at first I just said it to change the subject. I’m not sure I really ever did. Our youngest was just a baby so I would use that as an excuse a lot.
One day it was just him and I in the car and someone was talking about children needing a forever home, and that God has called us to take care of the widows and orphans. I was half listening, but my 6 year old heard every word. He turned to me and said “Mom why do you and dad have to keep praying about this? Why wouldn’t we want to help a baby that needed our help or give them a family if they didn’t have one?” Well in that moment I didn’t have an answer for him. There was a lot of truth coming out of his mouth, but nothing inside of me wanted to agree with him in that moment.
That reality check began a season of God tugging on our hearts. We began to go through all the what if’s. John and I came up with a lot of excuses and why nots. With each one God would answer and gently show us the why. I went from a feeling of completely being done having kids to a desire to open our home. John and I would pray together and pray separately and it was so neat how when we would come back together to talk God was showing us the same things.
Now the question was what road do we travel down. In our minds the only question was international or domestic. As we were on this road close friends were on their own journey. God had been tugging at their hearts too, and they had decided to do foster care. I will never forget the moment she told me. I was sitting in her kitchen and she was telling me all about it. She was so excited and I was excited for her, but in the back of my mind thinking I could never do that. A few days later I was pulling into my neighborhood and I had this thought, you are going to come alongside her. I just knew it was the Lord and I was so excited to say yes. I thought I can’t wait to help her with the babies to pray for their family. I never in a million years would have imagined what would have come next.