A Calling...

Last Fall (2008), we completed the 10-week training program, but there were 4 additional classes we had to make up this Spring (CPR, Medications, etc). We finished 2 of them this past weekend. The people that go through these classes are really amazing people. Buckner does an excellent job in presenting the worst-case scenarios of what being a foster parent can potentially look like. They constantly remind us that the reason these kids will come to us is because they have been traumatized in one way or another. Something bad has happened to them (or we wouldn’t be meeting them in the first place). I looked around the room on Saturday, and most of the people that we began the training with are still here. They are becoming foster parents for a variety of reasons: some can not have children of their own, while some have older children and feel that their families can use this as a ministry together. The common thread is that we all have a heart for children. There is something said in every meeting that would make a lot of people walk out of the room and not return. However, these parents are still there.
After the class on Saturday, Paul and I were talking on the porch. We were talking about what we thought life was going to look like with foster children. The unknown is scary. Paul said that he wants to make sure he protects our family well, and use wisdom in his decisions as we proceed. I asked him if he felt God was telling him that He wanted our family to do this. He said he did feel God leading us this way, even after what we have heard. There are several other things to do in order to get our house ready for foster children. We will have to take down our trampoline (the state doesn’t allow a trampoline if you have foster kids). We have to put a fence around the pool (the state requires it). The state does not allow you to put a girl foster child with our son (and vice-versa we can not put a boy foster child in our daughter’s room). Joshua is dying to share his room with someone, and his room is already set up with bunk beds to do that. We will have to get another bed in Marian’s room for her to share her room with a foster child. Next, we have to gather all of our medicine and put it in a locked box - even things like Neosporin have to be locked up! I could go on and on about the little details that we need to have worked out, and sometimes we wonder if it is worth it. But I go back to my original question - do we feel God is calling us to become foster parents? Paul and I have both said yes to that question, so now as overwhelming as it seems at times we continue on this journey.