About This Blog
This is about all of us. The children from rough places. The families who love them. The families who lost them. This is about life, and struggle, and the hope of the Gospel.
This life is messy. There are no silver bullets, secret formulas, or guarantees. There are the buoys of love and truth, and in foster care or adoption one critical goal –connection.
About the Author
I am a mom.
A foster mom, an adoptive mom, and
All of my children are fostered.
“Foster: 1. to promote the growth or development of; further; encourage 2. to bring up, raise, or rear 3. to care for or cherish (Dictionary.com)”
It is a long journey that brought me to this point. Of being a mom who fosters. It will be a much longer journey of excelling at it. The fact that I won’t ever arrive is a reminder that my children will always need another parent, the parent I can’t ever be for them, the perfect parent – Jesus. My failings are, in a way, grace. My children won’t ever be able to find all that they need in me. While I hate failing them, I hope this makes them acutely aware of their need for Jesus because He IS the perfect parent. He will never fail them.
Why I write
The stories you see here need to be written. We, as foster and/or adoptive parents, need them. What we do is hard. What we do is misunderstood. Our kids are misunderstood. Many times we are at a loss. How do we love this child best? How do we prepare them to go home? How do we reassure them that they are home? What “issues” do we address first?
We have a lot in common with traditional parents and…and yet nothing is ever really the same. That can’t be explained. It just is. So this is for you.
I write from my life and from the lives of countless other families across the U.S.
I write the real and the ugly, because without that, we can’t share hope, answers, or, when it looks like there are no answers, comfort.
I am also very, VERY careful not to expose the lives of my children or your children online.
That, my friends, is an incredibly hard balance.
We need truth and reality.
Our children need protection and respect.
Most of them had neither before they became part of our lives. So, forgive me when my writing switches from first to third person and back again. Forgive me when I don’t tell you if a story is from my child or her child, or your child. It’s all personal to someone and I protect that.
So join me and find real encouragement in this real life struggle.