Foster Parent Update

This foster parent update is long overdue. We’ve now been licensed foster parents since July 2012. Jacob was our first placement. For the first year we kept thinking he would be able to return to his first mama, but after about a year several things happened that changed our minds. We began hoping and praying that he would be able to stay forever. It was a long, long journey with many twists and turns and we wondered if it would ever end. Those of you who were on our prayer email list know all those details. We learned so much about God’s provision and His enduring faithfulness during that time.

We have had about eight or so other placements, all short-term, ranging from one night to four weeks. Most of those children were able to be placed with a family member, and a couple moved on to a long-term foster home. We are not taking placements now, but plan to resume short-term, emergency care at the end of the summer. We will do that for a while and see how it goes. Right now I don’t feel like I can manage more than four very young children. But we also don’t sense that this call God has placed on us has ended. We will see where He takes us as the road unfolds.
The need is great. There are so many hurting children and broken families who need someone to believe in them and love them. At a recent foster parent meeting, a young woman who had grown up in foster care spoke to us. She lived in more foster homes and group homes than she could remember to count, from the age of 3 until she aged out. No one ever adopted her. No one came to her graduation, or wrote her letters during boot camp, or gave her a place to come home to for Christmas.

Are foster children easy to parent? Oftentimes, no. And I wouldn’t recommend you jump in without a lot of prayer and study. But God equips the called and He will enable you to do the work.