Why Foster?

My “why”: Simply because someone asked me to. And even then, when we got in a room and heard all of the messy details, I was one foot out the door. We got to the car, and I was like, “yeah, so…no. That’s too risky and complicated.” And Daniel, being who he is, said, “In that room, in the middle of the Hard, that’s where Jesus would be. So yes. I think we do this. I think our family is supposed to do this, even if it’s hard on our kids.” And then Lauren Daigle’s “Rescue” song came on in the car, and I cried, and that was the end of it. We have been fostering our kids for almost three years. It’s not easy. It’s super complicated. It makes me see the worst in myself and in other people and in the system. But it also has shown me just a tiny glimpse of the great lengths to which God will go to rescue us. I don’t know that I would’ve said yes if I didn’t know names and faces. If they were just data and statistics and risks in Vermilion County. I’m amazed at my friends who willingly do so. But gosh, y’all. I was a risk. I am fragile and proud and rebellious and angry and selfish, and there’s no guarantee I’ll ever be more, and still Jesus pursued me. And hear me, this is not a saviorism view- I am not the savior, I am not the rescuer, and I utterly fail these kids daily. I am Plan B, not Plan A. I’m pretty sure someone else could do better. But Jesus came to make the blind see, the deaf hear, the prisoners walk free. He came so that my kids and their families would have LIFE, and life to the fullest. And in that room, on that day, He asked us to say yes so that *He* might rescue. We are the army He’s sending out to find them in the middle of the hardest night- them, their bio fam, all six of our kids, and to all who come after them. But it’s up to us to say yes.