Four Less

Our foster children have gone home - reunited with their parents.  They have been with us almost 5 months and to say that we have grown attached to them is an understatement.  We love them and care deeply for them and their absence is a great loss.  We have seen the baby learn to smile and laugh and sit and crawl and eat cereal.  And we have seen many firsts as well with the older kids.  They were both a challenge and a joy.  Our home is eerily quiet without them here.  People tell us (and all other foster parents) that they could not foster becaue they would get attached.  Well, that is kind of the deal.  That is one of the sacrifices of fostering.  You hurt for the kids.  You pray for the kids and their safety.  You get attached.  You laugh with them and you cry with them.  It is painful.  We have cried many tears and I am pretty sure, even though they wanted to go home, the kids have some pain in the separation as well.  But the kids are worth all of it.  They deserve someone to love them while their family pulls it together.  We did our best for them while they were with us and now we will pray for them - that they will be safe and loved and well cared for and that someone will continue to tell them how special they are.
The kids were gone from our home 24 hours ago.  We have gotten two calls asking us to take two different placements in that time.  Two sibling groups who need someone to care.  Our extra beds are still warm and we could have them full again tonight.  The need for more foster parents is so great.  The process to get licensed is excruciating and frustrating....but the kids are worth it.  The process of dealing with all the extra people who are suddenly thrust into your life (social workers, case workers, therapists, doctors, etc.) will try your desire for privacy and your patience.  But these kids need someone.  They have done nothing to be in the position of being without a home and parents.  They are innocent in the train wreck that is their lives.  Their stories are heart breaking.  If any of these kids were standing on your door step and telling you their story, I think most of you would scoop that child up and bring them in and care for them.  Well, these kids are standing on the doorsteps of our communities.  They have no voice to ask for help.  Yet they need it desperately.  Your age (as long as you are over 21), your marital status, and your wealth or lack thereof do not matter.  Do you have running water?  Do you have electricity?  Do you have the ability to provide a bed and food?  The requirements are pretty basic and believe it or not, the kids will be so excited to have these very basic things.
I try not to write, for public consumption anyway, when I am so emotional.  But this is too important to sugar coat or file away.  I see it every week.  I hear it every week.  There are kids who need you.


P.S.  I want so badly to include scripture but do not want to appear to be any more on my soapbox than I already do.  It does not take much searching of scripture to see how important the weak and vulnerable are to God.  He cares about these kids with no voice.  He expects us to be that voice.  We are instructed to be imitators of  Him.  I think He is grieved as these kids are sent to group homes instead of into Christian families.  It is our responsibility as Christians to take care of the least of these.

Summer, 2014

I have not blogged since May - since I posted about Radik - because it has been very hard to write about the fact that no families have moved forward with adopting him.  Even though it was a long shot, when the blog views got up to 2000, my hopes went up as well and it is hard to accept the fact that our efforts did not work.  It is too late for anyone from the U.S. to adopt him but Canadian citizens still have time.  So if you know of anyone in Canada who is considering adoption, please feel free to pass along Radik's information or put them in touch with me.

Then of course, we have also been very very busy, which has left me little time to blog.  We have had a foster placement of 4 siblings which has given us 7 children, 11 years old down to a few months old, under our roof.  It has been quite an adjustment but adjust we have and we are really enjoying the kids. We have done camps and VBS and swim lessons (for 6 of the 7 kids) and doctor's appointments and therapy appointments and social worker appointments.  I have had help in the form of a college student named Kasy and she has made it all possible.  The kids love her and I love her and it has been great. But it has been the busiest summer of our life!

Benjamin is doing amazingly well.  He is so happy and really loves being here.  We are squeezing in school work where we can and he continues to do well in school.  Every single time we finish, he says, "Thank you mama for school."  The.  Sweetest.  Thing.  Ever.  He learned to swim in no time and loves going to the pool.  He says, "I no have fun like this in Pishanna."  Such a funny kid.  What is not funny is that we were looking at pictures tonight from when we first met him.  He looks so afraid in the earliest pictures and I commented on how scared he looked.  I have heard this from so many adoptive families but it was still a shock to hear it come out of his mouth.  He said, "People told me American parents would kill me." He said he thought about it and decided, "That is not true."  What courage and bravery it must have taken for him to come with us.  We are very grateful for his courage.

Jocelyn and Ellie Grace have also had a great summer.  They have really enjoyed having girls in our home that are their ages.  They play and play and just love our fosters.  I wish I could post pictures of all of them together - but alas, it is very against foster care rules!

Our pastor preached a sermon a month or so ago that I have not been able to get out of my head.  It included the story of Jacob and Esau which we have all heard a thousand times.  But he had a different twist on it and was so very thought provoking.  He referenced an Andy Stanley sermon which I am including a link to below.  We all know that Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of stew and I think we all wonder what in the world he could have been thinking.  The birthright is a huge thing to sell for such an inconsequential bowl of stew.  How could he have done that?!  Yet so many of us do that every day.  Our birthright is eternity with God in heaven.  Yet we trade it for what....an unimportant, inconsequential bowl of stew.  What is your bowl of stew?  The sermon is incredible and very worth watching.







Now for a few pics:

We are so very blessed.