I'm so thankful to be a foster parent. This was a leap of faith Josh and I took about seven months ago. Just like many of lives circumstances and great mysteries, nothing can fully prepare you for taking a child into your heart, home and schedule; a child you did not birth into this world. Were told to love them like their our own but you can't really prepare for them to stay. Fostering is the in between, the waiting for biological family to be redeemed, to be given yet another chance to show the minimum requirement to be a parent.
Josh and I have been married for 4 plus years. We have no kids of our own but miscarried a few months ago. While hoping to still have our own children, fostering is where we have landed. Somehow God wants us to be parents to those not by blood our own. We have "fostered" several teens over the years, not by the hand of DHS but by the will of God. These students we have mentored and poured ourselves into. Beyond the trite saying of "doing life together" we have indeed shared our open lives with them and they with us.
But how much further God is asking us to go is unclear.
Tonight I'm struggling with parenting a child not fully mine but completely Gods. She is almost four and always adorable even when she does something wrong...that's a problem. She states that she has two mommies and one daddy, a matter I carry on my shoulders. I take this seriously. Empty promises told to a three year old are unfair and uncalled for. I can't promise her I know the future but God help me point her to the One who does.
I'm concerned for her and many children being tossed about through a system with inconsistent rules and laws that seem to give a stronger voice to the addicted parents than to the innocent children...but I'm a bit biased. Who does really work on their behalf? Who picks up the pieces after legal decisions are decided?
No comments:
Post a Comment