Our foster Journey began around 2015. We have two beautiful children of our own, but for health reasons we determined we would not have any more. God began stirring in my heart the thought of adopting one day.
Then, on an orphan Sunday, Mike and I both felt the tug on our hearts and started the process for a foster to adopt opportunity.
Our first and only placement was an 11-month-old boy, part of a sibling group, who we had for 22 months. We celebrated his first and second birthday, his first words, and his first steps. He truly touched our hearts and we still love and miss him today. He ended up getting placed with another family who adopted him and one of his siblings. We said goodbye to him in January 2019, moved into a new home in February, and decided to take a break for 6 months to a year and get our new home ready to begin the process again.
Well, 2020 happened, which only created further delays and challenges. But by the end of 2020, we did feel a tug to start our training over again. We did respite for a dear family in the church whom we are adore in May 2021, which was such a blessing to both us and them! After two family vacations this summer, it was finally time to move forward with opening our home. However, we just did not feel that was going to be our ministry and God was once again stirring in our hearts.
We felt like God was calling us to support the foster families around us through babysitting and respite care.
The only downside is that respite care isn’t always as consistent as we were wanting, so we met with Barbara and talked about how can we make it something we can do at least once a month as a family and put structure around it. Barbara was totally on board and supportive, and also asked us if we would lead the babysitting team. We are very honored and excited to lead the team and to provide support for the amazing families in our church that serve and love these amazing kids day in and day out.
We have already reached out to the foster adopt group page and did our first babysitting date night, and have respite lined up for another family in a couple of weeks. We also have people reaching out to join the babysitting team.
It is just awesome to see God providing resources and support, because at the Oaks, no one walks alone!
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