The last week in February we got "the" call that we'd been approved to be a foster family. The very next day, we got a phone call that they had a case they wanted us to consider. As I was relaying the information to Shaun we got to joking around.
No, no, no. We didn't actually want to do this, we just wanted the foster care certificate to proudly present at the pearly gates....to be able to say, see...we got licensed! :)
The little picture in our head had us with a girl, but in fact we'd been matched with a nine year-old boy!
A couple weeks passed before we heard too much more...apparently the DCF social worker changed several times before getting the one he has now, due to job changes, etc and that was enough to bring things to a standstill.
Finally on Monday evening of last week we got a call, can you meet Z in the morning? Yes.
Walking up to the facility where he's been since mid-January was very strange. One of those how-did-we-get-here moments. We were ushered into a conference room with his DCF social worker and a person shadowing her for the day, his social worker from our agency, his worker from the safe home and at one point his nurse....all sitting around a large table talking about his case. Then someone went to get him and bring him into that scene. Talk about intimidating!
We were impressed with him immediately. He made eye contact and asked thoughtfully prepared questions. He's a cut-to-the-chase communicator (much like Shaun and I), in a respectful way. He just needs a straight story and then he processes it and moves on. Very mature for his age in many ways.
We walked out of that brief meeting with a very good feeling about him. I also had a can-we-really-do-this fear growing inside me. We talked about it on the 45 minute ride home. Our lives right now are simple, easy, stress-free and now, on purpose, we are going to disrupt that. Things may never be the same.
What if.
What if God does not want things to be the same?
Shaun also reminds me...if not us, who?
Why has Z been waiting since January to be placed in a home? Why is he considered "therapeutic"when he's not on any meds and hasn't been bounced around in foster care all his life? We like to think that maybe its so he can be in our home and so we can foster him...for such a time as this.
When someone has been given much, much will be required in return; and when someone has been entrusted with much, even more will be required.
Luke 12:48
Luke 12:48
I think all your foster care posts are going to make me cry :)
ReplyDeleteBless your sweet hearts! My inlaws were foster parents for years and adopted 6 kids (after having 5 of their own) through foster care. The stories they've told me and the heart break they've seen makes my heart ache - but I'm so thankful for couples like them and you who are called to do this. A new friend of mine was in foster care for several years in her youth before being adopted and she has told me how grateful she is to God for the foster family and adoptive family He provided for her. She knows her life would not be what it is if God hadn't intervened in her life in such a way.
ReplyDeleteI love how you changed the "what if" into the "what if God doesn't want things to be the same". So touching!
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