Fostering Friday

Fostering Fridays are all about my journey as a foster mom, how I feel about it, the highs and lows, and how it affects my family. And of course, hoping to increase awareness and prayer for this challenging and very rewarding ministry.
 

Russ and I have worked though the spectrum of emotions this summer regarding our foster baby.  We're coming up on the one year anniversary of the day we brought this precious baby home form the NICU. As you probably know, that means that there are some parental decisions to be made in court and some new life directions chosen for this baby. Our hearts have been squeezed and stretched as we have prayed though our role in this child's life. God has spoken peace and confidence to us as we've trusted Him and we have reached a decision. It's a choice full of hope and full of sadness.

Our caseworker has been a direct blessing from God. She is Godly and full of wisdom and encouragement and she had a large role in helping us prayerfully wade through some tough moments. In the end, I am trusting my wonderful husband and leaning on him to guide us through as a family. As we move closer to a final date that will lead this child to his forever parents we are understanding our role more clearly. He is a gift, one given to us for a time and he will a gift be to his mom and dad that are waiting so anxiously for him. There are more court dates and any number of things that could change but we do know that the future for our baby is adoption. Choosing a path that will undoubtedly cause pain for ourselves is difficult, but I am leaning on the Lord and His mercies. I know if we are following where He leads then He will fill us with His grace to endure what he has placed before us!

So, as this sweet child, who has grown from a baby to a boy, heads down the road to adoption I ask you to pray. Pray for our family, for this child, and for his parents to be. We don't know who they will be yet but we have confidence that God has chosen them already and they have a hole in their hearts just the shape of our precious little one. Just waiting to fill it with our baby boy! It is bittersweet, but no one said foster care is easy and pain free. I'm so thankful we have Christ to guide us and support us. My faith in His sovereign plan make me able to let go and believe in His goodness. The journey is not yet complete, but we've come through a particularly large bump in the road and we are still turning our faces upward in praise and believing in the almighty plan of our great God!

I am so thankful for the wonderful support and listening ear I have received from so many of you as I have fitfully worked through our decision not to adopt. I appreciate that there has been no condemnation, only love and understanding. If you do have a negative thought or comment, I do ask that you keep it to yourself. Baring our decision so openly is very difficult and I would appreciate your sensitivity to my fragile heart! Thanks so much for your love and prayers, they mean the world to me!