How will you give them back?

Here is Joanise ~ oh, what a sweetie

So, how did we get to where we are now with our desire to foster? It all started with a little Haitian girl named Joanise who was here from Haiti to have surgery last February through June. She was here because of a condition called hydrocephalus (fluid on the brain) and a doctor at duPont Children's hospital graciously gave of his time and energy to operate and put shunts in numerous children's heads. We had the pleasure of being respite care for a our friends who were hosting little Joanise and would fall more and more in love with her when she would stay with us. The boys responded so well to her and didn't even notice her very large head. They would take turns "babysitting" and entertaining her. It was tough because she was so fragile and her head really was quite large but we enjoyed having her and she left a big impression on our hearts.

I remember one day in the spring that Steve and I were driving in the car and were talking about the fact that she was going to be greatly missed. It also opened our hearts and eyes to the fact that someone was missing from our family. We didn't feel like we were necessarily supposed to try to have our own baby or even pursue an adoption. It was a very strange feeling because while we were both on the same page about this void in our lives, we didn't know what to do about it. That eventually lead us to thinking about fostering. We spoke with our families about it and asked them to pray with us. It was clear after a while that this is what we were supposed to do and we feel like we would have been disobeying God if we didn't pursue it. The biggest question and concern our families had was, "how will you give them back?" We said that we didn't know but that God would help us get through that when the time(s) came. Having to give them back wasn't a reason or good enough excuse for us not to foster. We said that we hoped it would be tough to give them back because that would mean that we've done our job with loving them and caring for them. We went to our first foster care informational meeting in June, went to our training in July, did our homestudy in August and got our first placement on September 4th.

Steven and Francheska arrived and it was every bit as chaotic as you might think it would be. All of a sudden we had 2 extra kiddos in the house which we were very excited about but it was all so new to us! Steven was 18 months old and Francheska was 2 and 1/2 months old when they came to us. Crazy me didn't even think about putting the pack and play up for Steven so at first it was impossible to get anything done while he was awake. Then we figured it out (about a month later) and having 4 kids was a breeze. They went home with their grandparents on December 19th and I was so sad! They were such cute and good little guys and I missed them so much! We got a phone call 2 days before they left asking if we would take on two more kids with a third on the way when Steven and Francheska went home and we hesitantly said yes. 3 kids now!?!? holy moly! Have you seen the size of our house?!? 5 kids might be pushing it but we felt led to say yes and take them in so we did trusting God that he would some how expand our walls and our hearts to care for so many. Lametri and Taevion came to us on December 30th and T'aeja was born on February 17th. It was tough having a 3 and 1/2 year old, a 10 month old and a newborn but with the help of family and friends and by the grace of God, we made it through those first couple of tough weeks. Without going into much detail, Lamteri had to be placed in a different home in May and our load got much lighter. We still keep in touch with him because his foster family is in our support group through Bethany Christian Services so we see him at least once a month. We know that God will not give us more then we can handle but at the same time, he also gives us common sense and it was clearly time for Lametri to get more help and be in a different type of home. God answered our prayers by opening up such a great new foster home for him.

If God is laying it on your heart to open your home to a child in need, please be obedient to that calling and take children in! There are over 22,000 foster kids in the state of Pennsylvania alone! The need is great, so please pray about 0pening up your home and fostering.