Ian and I spent a lot of time praying over what God wanted us to do with our family. About a year ago we decided we were to add to our family, but in a unique way...fostering (or foster to adopt to be more specific). We are good parents and have worked hard to build a strong family. There are lots of kids out there who need good parents and a strong family but have neither of those things. It is heart breaking to consider.
Right now in southwest ohio there is a need for foster families. Maybe more so than any other time. I'm told they are seeing incredible levels of drug abuse and addiction and families are torn apart by it every day. The bible says, "...In you the orphan finds mercy," (Hosea 14:3) and again, "
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction..." (James 1:27). What are we waiting for???
Well, we are waiting for our classes to be done and then the long process of a home study. So far butler county has been ON IT with everything from emails we have sent to getting registered for classes, etc. In our county you have two options for fostering: going through the county or a private agency. If you know our conservative ways you may wonder, 'why didn't they go private?' (if you care to wonder at all) Three reasons...1. with private agencies you can get a placement from any county in southwest ohio. Children will, rightfully so, have visits with their birth parents each week and for us it was not worth the potential of having to drive an hour or more each week to take the kid(s) to see their birth parents. 2. with most private agencies it is much more difficult to find people to babysit your foster kids. With the county all they need is a background check. Lots of our friends would be up for that. Right folks? And 3. each county that gets custody of a child will look within its own pool of foster homes first before turning to a private agency to find a home. So we kind of get first dibs on a little babe who needs a crib:)
Our first classes were last weekend (we had three). We are doing what they call the 'lightening round' of classes where you do all 12 classes in two weekends. Because of the weather one of our days got cancelled and we are making it up later. It was a lot of info at one time, but nothing we couldn't handle. We aren't naive about what it means to foster. Kids don't just get taken out of good homes to go be with another nice family. They get taken from homes where they are left buckled in their car seats for days on end so their parents can go get high. They are taken from homes that have an inch of dirt and grime on the floor which potentially has a mix of their blood from the last time they were beaten. We know this. And that's why we're doing it. These first classes were depressing, but they weren't giving us appalling new information. They were confirming what we know and what our mission is in this: to be family where there is none.
We will have the incredible opportunity to impact the lives of parents who just can't handle that title right now. We will be able to love, nourish and care for sweet babies that just need someone to show and tell them how valuable they are in the eyes of the One who made them. I know it wont be pretty. It's not the stuff of romance novels, but it is real and it's where we are.
