Foster Care

I don't remember any in depth conversations about doing foster care, it was always more of a matter-of-fact.  Once we felt like we were done with our biological family, we started to pursue getting licensed.

After a couple months of intensive training and paperwork filling out, we became licensed foster parents.  The very next day, we got a call for a sibling group of three.  The plan was to get the oldest first, then bring in the other two.  We went on a roller coaster ride as the scenarios changed and dates changed and social workers changed.  While we were definitely disillusioned by "the system" we loved our time with "Z".  He was with us 1.5 years before he was reunited with his bio mom.  The family is open to staying in contact with us and we've had him overnight many times since he left.

Since that first placement, we have had over 30 children in our home, spanning over 10 years, including respites and long-term.

Before we began the process I just assumed that since our kids were young we would take in young kids but we felt God wanted us to take teenagers.  It turns out we really like this age and the kids aren't as scary as their reputation would indicate.  They are actually very receptive to someone genuinely caring about them and having a safe and stable place to stay.

For the most part, we've made peace with the dysfunction that is the State and continue on in spite of their best efforts to frustrate us out of foster parenting.  We've seen some heart-breaking, unbelievable things but overwhelmingly more than that we've seen the beautiful truth that God's grace is enough.