Saturday, December 3, 2016

Image result for children walking away

For many years now, since  I was a young child and still in school, I have thought about adoption, perhaps because my sister is adopted.  I knew I wanted many children, and I thought to myself that since there were so many children in the world who needed a family, I would bring one into mine.

Jump ahead several years later; I find myself married with three biological children and a dog.  We’re living in a different state, away from my rather large and close-knit family and a church family where I found so much support and love throughout my life.  And I’ve found that my desire to adopt is just as strong as ever.  It’s also evolved, and I feel as though God is calling me into the world of foster parenting.  Perhaps this is how God intends to bring us a child or children for adoption.  There are many times when I feel like our family is not yet complete, like there is a space for someone more.  It’s gotten to the point that when we sit down to meals as a family, and I see the empty chairs we have left around the table. I see an empty bedroom that could be a safe place to a child who needs it.  I don’t know who this child is, or who these children are, but I’m already praying for them throughout the day.  They are on my mind as much as my very own children.  

We’ve gone through a good bit of the preparation process in order to become approved for housing fostering children. Currently, we’re gearing up for the second portion of our home study.  I know that within the next month or two, if approved, we will begin receiving calls from our resource officer, letting us know there is a child that needs to be placed and asking if we can take them in.  

I have to say I’ve had doubts through this process.  Doubts that have come in the form of comments that people have made to me: “Why would you want more children when you already have three?” and “You already have your hands so full!”.  Doubts that pop into my head when it’s been a rough day with my own three children and I wonder if it’s fair to any of them to bring more children into the picture.  There are evenings where I am mentally or emotionally exhausted and about all I am good for is popping a movie into the projector and declaring it a “family movie night” with popcorn and pillows and blankets all over the living room.

It was a few weeks ago that I was reminded through a bible study that the Enemy loves to cast doubt.  So now that I know where the doubt is coming from, I don’t worry when it comes up.  I know there will be rough days. There were rough days before kids, and I had them with only one child in the house.  There were rough days with two, and we still have them with three.  There will be rough days, but there will be wonderful days as well.  There will be those moments where I wish time would stop and we could stay suspended in the joy and peace we are experiencing within our little circus.  And on the days where I don’t feel like I am enough; when I find I need encouragement, there are verses that remind me that I am weak, but there is someone who strong for me.

2 Corinthians 12:9
My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.  

And my favorite: 1 Corinthians 1:27
But God chose the foolish things of this world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of this world to shame the strong.  He chose the lowly things of this world, and the despised things -and the things that are not - to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.  

Last week as we were completing a round of paperwork together, my husband asked me: “Are you excited that we are getting close to having foster kids in our home?”  My answer was immediate, excited was definitely the wrong word.  Am I excited for a child to be taken away from their family? To be placed in a strange new environment where nothing is familiar and not even the food tastes the same?  Definitely not.

But I am thankful.  Thankful that we are blessed with a home where there is space for another child or two.  That we can be a safe place for these children until they are able to be reunited with their biological families.  Thankful for this opportunity to be a light, not just to these children but to their families as well.  Thankful that God has been meaningfully placing people into our life here in GA and providing us with a village and support system.  

And I am at peace, because I feel like I am finally answering a call that God has placed in my heart all these years.  Please pray that God would use our family to reach out to these children.  That our home will be a safe place for them, and that they would feel the level of peace, the hope, and the love that only God can give.  


Blessings to you.

No comments:

Post a Comment