The Road that Grew our Family

We were a family of six, and now we are a family of 10. As you grow in your relationship with God, you see that there is so much more to life than just obtaining what the world would have you believe is success. Here is a little insight to our journey when we had our hearts opened to foster care and adoption.

We knew early in our marriage that we wanted to have a good size family and we agreed to have 4 kids. Through the early years of raising our 4 children, we were always involved in doing something with kids, whether it was Sunday school, coaching or volunteering.

“Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: To visit the orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.” James1:27

Since our spiritual growth was a priority, we wanted the Holy Spirit to refine us to make us more like Christ. We wanted to be obedient to God's word. Those words "visit the orphans", which we understood as taking care of the orphans, started to weigh on our hearts.

Traveling Along

As we were going about our lives, praying and seeking where we might serve the Lord, my husband received an invitation to a co-worker's barbecue. We found out that this couple did foster care and they wanted us to meet this little girl and her older siblings.

The young girl was very sweet! She fell into the age range of our girls and they all got along great. We would have get togethers with her and her foster family. We had her over for sleepovers and camping trips. Our relationship with her started to flourish.

Months had gone by, and more information was given to us. We found out that she also had a baby brother who was in a different foster home. They invited us to meet him at the next sibling visitation. He was such a little cutie and we all enjoyed the time we had together. It was amazing how God brought these precious lives into our life! A few days later we were given an update on their case and asked if we would be interested in adopting the two little ones. And, of course, the process was started.

"And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me." Mat.18:5

Out of Nowhere a Barricade

We were getting excited and shared the good news with the kids and rest of the family. We had many discussions on things that we needed to do and continued to pray that God would continue to guide us. We filled out all of the required paperwork and had many conversations with those that were involved. They told us that we had everything done and they could make the motion for adoption at the final court hearing when parental rights were terminated.

After a couple of weeks waiting with anticipation to hear an update, we finally got a call. The case worker told us that a new judge was assigned to the case, the mother made an appeal, and the judge granted it, despite her not abiding to her reunification plan. Our two little precious kids were gone. They were removed from their foster homes and we lost all contact with them. We were devastated.

Miles Down the Road

We continued on our path, letting God do His work of healing and refining us. We poured our lives into our own kids and the thought of foster to adopt never left us. Even our kids would ask us when we were going to get involved again.

We went through some major life changes and it was time to find a new home. We prayed that God would put us where He needed us and to give us a home that He could use to His glory. We also prayed that if doing foster care was in His will for us, that He would open the doors.

We made the move, we went from living out in the country to living in a subdivision in a bigger town. The house we were blessed with had plenty of space, especially since we had two of our kids out on their own and two in high school. It wasn't too long after our move that I heard about an agency doing foster care classes, and it happened to work with our schedule, so we registered.

Around two weeks after finishing the class and meeting all of the requirements, we received our first call to take in two kids. It was then that we turned onto a new road and our family grew.

Staying on the Road

"In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight." Proverbs 3:6

Although that experience was very difficult, we needed to remember to trust God. We are never promised that we will not endure suffering, it is quite the opposite. God's word reads in Ephesians 4:2 "With all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love." I believe those painful times are used to change us and make us more Christ-like. We need to be refined because there is so much dirt and selfishness deep within us. Thank you Holy Spirit for the sanctification process You do in us! We also need to remind ourselves that if we feel God calling us to do something, that one, His timing is not our timing. We see in 2nd Peter chapter 3 that "With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day." And two, there needs to be equipping. Hebrews 13:21 ESV says, "Equip you with everything good that you may do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever." Andrew Murray said it so well, "We must indeed grow in grace, but before we can grow in grace we must be put right." If we are not growing spiritually, our carnal state, our flesh which is so wretched and full of pride, will get in the way of God's work being done. Lord I pray that You continue to refine us. Let Your Holy Spirit take possession of us and fill us with a new life given all to Jesus. Amen.