A treasure of a 4 year old boy is asleep in the extra bed in Eli's room. (admittedly, he fell asleep much faster tonite than he did last night and I'm thankful!)
After fostering LJ for nearly a year, he was able to move to a family that has great hopes of being his forever family (it's humbling when you come to the realization that your family may not be the best family for a particular child)(not sure if I have shared much about that)(maybe someday).
We've been contacted by DFCS about a few other placements...but haven't been able to say yes for a variety of reasons - travel plans and the size of our house being the main 2 reasons. Our house is more than sufficient for our family - but the bedrooms aren't very large and cannot really safely accommodate bunk beds because of fan placement, so bringing more kids into our home isn't as easy as we may want it to be. We could house a young-ish boy and/or a baby...but the likelihood of a placement being that specific seems to be rare.
We were contacted a week or so ago about doing respite (short term) care for a little boy. We were grateful to finally be able to say yes! We were told that he is a delight and never meets a stranger...he's living up to his reputation!
There are high hopes of reunification for this one, his 4 siblings and their parents. Pray with me for this family and specifically for the parents...pray for wise decisions and strength and energy! I'm beginning to learn that foster care can be about so much more than providing a safe and stable environment for a child....there is the potential for partnership with the parents (I can see why there's a shift from the title of "foster parents" to "partnership parents"). There's the potential for investing in an entire family - not just the child - even if the investment is short-term. I really want to get better at this type of investing. Our friend Mark has a dream of working directly with and investing in at risk families in order to PREVENT kids from getting into the system in the first place - that's an Ephesians 3:20 request. May it be so.
On a semi-unrelated but totally related note, I'm amazed by the trust that is put in foster parents. As this child was put in my car by people who don't know me, I was overwhelmed by the trust that they were putting in me - it made me grateful for every form that was filled out, every background check that was performed and every fingerprint that was required. I hate the thought that sick and twisted people still slip through the system and do terrible things to children that are already so very vulnerable. Hate it.
God, please draw more and more trustworthy, kind and integrity-filled people to love and serve children in the foster care system -- if you happen to think that might be you and you live here in Georgia, here's a link to more information: Georgia Foster Care
And even if you're not called to be a foster parent, there are plenty of ways to be involved in foster care, Here are a few that are coming to mind:
- Foster Prayer (email me if you're interested in getting prayer updates diannacash@yahoo.com) - or just pray on your own. All prayers for foster families, foster children, DFCS workers, care teams, foster care organizations and anything else you can think of are MOST WELCOME.
- Be an Advocate for Foster Care - my friend Christal at Clement Care can tell you all about this one
- Become a part of a care team for a foster family
- Bless and encourage and love on DFCS workers (I've got ideas! Let me know if you want to help the ideas come to life!)
Respite care for little ones...this may be our niche, at this for this season (though we're open to whatever the Lord has in mind for us and our family)
Surely there will be more to come (for me and for you, too).
