Our story began about three years ago when the Lord prompted me to begin learning Spanish. I didn’t really understand why, but I started using Duolingo every day. Then, my husband and I felt led to become foster parents. It took about a year to become licensed, simply because coronavirus slowed down the paperwork process. We got our first placement on February 11th, 2021—a little girl, Makir, who was 21 months at the time, and a little boy named Dainer who was 6 months old. This was 3 days before the 2021 Texas “snowmaggedan”.
While we didn’t have water for 9 days, we were mostly thankful that we didn’t lose power so these little ones had heat the whole time. Sure enough they were from Honduras and spoke no English! My limited Spanish was quickly put to good use. I was very thankful to God for prompting me to learn Spanish! The little ones came to us very scared and tired. I was so thankful for my own 5 children, because the foster children connected with them immediately. When the snowmaggedan was over, the children began having weekly visits with their parents. Their parents never missed a visit. The children would come home with food, clothes, toys, and letters from biological parents to my husband and I. They just poured their hearts out to us about how thankful they were that we were kind to the children, and to them, and how much they loved and missed their children. I immediately had compassion and not anger towards these parents.
They came to America to find a better life for them and their children. They had their first child here 10 days after they arrived and their second child just 14 months later. I can’t imagine doing that, being that brave, without my parents or grandparents to help or simply give support. The biological mom would send me christian songs and pictures of her and her husband at church. I was encouraged.
I just prayed that while the children were in our care, the parents would get the support they needed and the parenting skills that would help them thrive.
In the meantime, the mother and I would write back and forth as she would pour her heart out to me. It was a little funny because she would try and write in English and I would try and write in Spanish…..it was very stilted, but our hearts' motives were understood. They knew my husband and I were just there to help them in any way that we could and keep the children safe until the babies could be returned to them.
The babies were with us for a total of 8 months. The little girl turned 2 while in our care and she learned many new words, how to climb, and got over her fear of water and swam in the pool. The little boy turned 1 and went from lying on his belly to sitting up, crawling, saying his first words, to walking. The bond we shared was very strong, and we were so deeply sad to let them go. However, we also had a deep sense of pride and admiration for their biological parents for working so hard to become the parents God intended them to be. They took months and months of services and classes. They took extra jobs to save money so mom could be with the kids when they were returned. They found a strong support system through church and new-found friends. We were just so proud of them.
At the beginning of October this year, CPS called me and said that the transporter would be at our home at 1 PM on Thursday to come and get the children and take them to their parents. I begged the CPS worker to please let us go meet the mom and dad and give them a hug. I explained that she had been pouring her heart out to me for so many months and I just wanted to give her a hug and say goodbye to the children with her. CPS agreed! It was a lovely reunion. They were able to thank us in person and present us with a beautiful plaque thanking us for our help, and we were able to place their children back in their arms ourselves.
While we are going to miss those children like crazy, we are just so happy that this whole story was a beautiful picture of what the foster system can look like.
The lord helped us realize it was not our job to judge but simply to love. Love the children. Love the parents. The Lord also taught us to lean on Him for strength, compassion, and love. We simply cannot do our best job in our own strength when parenting. We need Him. We need His love………everyday, every minute, every hour.
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