"I totally would If I.."

The month of May was National Foster Care Month.  In light of this I wanted to wrap up a few thoughts I had.  Much of our family's story is familiar to many of you who have have walked with us on this journey, the many of you who have cried with us and celebrated with us, have carried us when we've been exhausted, and have lived life alongside us.  Zach and I were so humbled and blessed to share our story in a few different settings over the month.  Humbled because so many of you out there have greater stories and have done so much more than we have, but we pray that God would use our little voices for his glory. We are not the poster children for foster care - what we are is the poster children for God's grace and redemption, as are each one of you who calls himself a Christ follower.  But prayerfully, our journey as a foster family would speak to you in your own walk with the Lord, in demonstrating God's amazing grace when we walk with faith. 

Our journey started with an idea that just wouldn't go away. We didn't have a family when we started the process and for as unprepared as we often feel now with all the things parenting throws at us, we were even more unprepared then. The thought of becoming foster parents was there, a little seed in my head, but it kept getting shut out by all the reasons we couldn't do it: we didn't have money, we didn't live on a big farm with lots of space, we had just a small one bedroom apartment at the time, we didn't know anything about being parents. I think many of us have heard a story about foster care and thought “I'd love to do that!” but then it goes away. But it kept coming back and kept rattling around in my head and heart and so finally I knew I needed to bring it up to Zach.  Did he think we could do this?  And he totally surprised me by saying yes! And that was all it took – saying yes to a thought. We had no idea how it would work, but now that the idea had a voice, we couldn't keep pushing it away. And it was once we spoke it, once we got it out of our heads, there stopped being so many walls and God started opening doors. And one of the doors was Olive Crest. We called them, and honestly expected them to say, “Thanks but no thanks, call us when you're older, more settled, more experienced”, but instead they too said, “Yes!” And they led us through the process of becoming certified. And through the process we met other families – families who weren't strange or scary like a lot of the images that the media has given us of foster families. Normal families, cool families even, families who like us, wanted to open their homes to these hurting and broken children. It was seeing these families that showed us that there is no mold, no right or wrong way to be a part of a system that is there to help. All you have to do is be willing to step outside your comfort zone and give your desire a voice. 

I have had so many people tell me over the past month that they "would totally do foster care if..."  If they stayed home full time, if they had a bigger home, if they were younger, if they didn't already have kids themselves.  I had a million "ifs" stopping me.  But I am so thankful that God didn't let me keep use them.  I fall to my knees, heartbroken, when I think what would have been had I let my ifs stop me. Tears catch in my throat when I think of the good life that could have been - and the rich life that God has instead allowed me because we said yes in faith.  That's all there was: faith and grace.  What would you "totally do" if you changed your "if I" to "when God"?


For more ways to learn how you can make a difference in the lives of children and youth in foster care, please visit:

Olive Crest
www.olivecrest.org

National Foster Care Month 2015
https://www.childwelfare.gov/fostercaremonth/