Dazed and confused. This is life right now and we’re still trying to wrap our brains around it as well as figure out how to better manage it. But I’ve been trying to get a handle on that one for 16 years and…
Here’s the deal: after posting my laundry list of what happened to Friday, I started getting a lot of “You’re amazings!” and “You’re a rock star!” and “Mom of the Year!” types of comments and such. Here is the God’s Honest Truth: I’m not amazing. I’m not a rock star. I’m CERTAINLY not Mom of the Year. And I’m not being self-deprecating when I say this, it’s simply the truth. And I suspect most of you know that already anyway.
Here’s the other deal: After finishing the December Photo Project, I just decided I’d keep it going as it was helping me think more intentionally about providing everyday life content to my blog without me having to really struggle to think of it. So that’s what I’ve been doing, only on January 3, E3 joined our family for this season and that’s been a pretty major thing ever since. I didn’t necessarily set out to chronicle life as a foster parent, I was just tired of neglecting my blog and/or giving it over to reviews and giveaways completely, hence the “2013 in Photos” category and accompanying content.
I process life by writing, so that’s what’s happening here. And I do struggle with the whole “let your good works be done in secret” thing because I’m not trying to show off with this. What we’re doing is hardly show-off-able (see above photo). But I do think it’s important to chronicle what we’re doing and let others peek into it just a little not only to raise awareness of such great need all across our country, but maybe…just maybe…God will use our experiences to encourage someone else to think a bit more about what they can do to also help those who are helpless.
- Maybe adopt?
- Maybe long-term foster?
- Maybe emergency foster? (That’s what we’re doing)
- Maybe provide respite care for other foster parents? (weekend care)
- Maybe come alongside a foster family and surprise them with meals, diapers, support?
- Something.
Getting involved doesn’t have to completely change your life. But I think it should change your heart. And how that looks will be different for all of us.
But it should look like something.
We’re not heroes here. We just have hearts.
Half-Pint House 
Another great option is the CASA program, where people can train to be advocates for minors in the court system. As a pastor, this strikes me as a great option for families that decide that they are unable (too large? young children? “parents” are older? many families decide this for various reasons) to have children in their home, but who still want to care for orphans as Scripture commands.
I’ve talked to CASAs who have developed relationships with particular kids through the years, and they end up being one of the few stable adult relationships the kid has throughout their childhood. They may have bounced from family member to family member, in and out of foster care, and through dozens of foster and respite homes, but the one constant is their Advocate.
I would like to see/hear more folks who are prominent voices in favor of taking up this biblical mandate (like you and Craig are becoming) speak up for this option as a great means of ministry and service.
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Thanks for pointing that out too, Ed. There is a family at our school who did this last year and I confess I don’t know much about it, but what you’ve detailed above does make it sound like a viable option for those who can’t take kids into their own homes for various reasons.
And I’ll say, too, that I understand there are good reasons people can’t take kids in. We couldn’t do it in St. Louis because our house was too small (law said max of 2 people per bedroom and our three bedroom house had 6 people in it already). Thankful to have a bigger space here and want to be faithful with it while we can.
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