A collision

from French Press Mornings:)

I'm starting to understand why people who do foster care don't last long with blogging. A friend of mine recently sent me a post from another blogger about how, more than any of the common fears people express about foster care, his greatest fear would be in NOT caring for these kids. Foster care has had a huge impact on his family with young kids and he says it's been for the better. Our experience has been very similar. It has been HARD and it has changed us and is continuing to change us, but I think we are all better because of J being here. You can read his full post here.

One quote that I felt connected with most from that post was, "Foster care is nothing if it's not the collision of two worlds - one of relative ease and comfort is systematically destroyed while one of extreme brokenness and loss is beautifully restored." Yes! So true! We have seen J become a different person then who he was when he came to us. But at the same time our life of (relative) ease got hit by a mack truck the day he came. We now have less time to focus on being a cute little happy family and more time to focus on tantrums, screaming and food being thrown across the dining room. Sometimes Mary looks at me and has to remind me, "mommy, he's still learning huh?"

It's hard not to get sucked into his anger sometimes, because he can become VERY angry. We pray over him against any evil that may be influencing his life or that influenced him in the past. It can also be very hard not to get sucked into the complicated and drama filled world of foster care. This week alone we have 5 different meetings and/or appointments that involve J. That's more than normal but still...it's not that much more. And the drama that surrounds his parents is a whole other story. I just try to focus on caring for him despite the fact that I have so many questions that might never get answered.

Please continue to pray for us. I always need to remember that we are only three months in! And he has made significant strides in that time! But it takes much longer for me to bond with a child and for them to be really integrated into the family.