Becoming Fosters: Brokenness And BelongingSample

Worth It

"When you bring brokenness into your home you can’t help but to be broken by it."

I don’t know where I heard these words for the first time but they are words to live by. The truth in this sentence carries profound weight fully understood by each foster family. There are moments I find myself sitting in brokenness and simple humility in the most unexpected ways. At times, unable to hold back the tears, I find myself in a state of complete reflection and wonder at the multifaceted reasons we chose to foster.

As a foster mama you pray constantly for the foster children in your care, but also constantly for your own children who didn’t choose this. You pray they understand your heart, the Lord’s heart, and that it also becomes their heart. You pray they know it is right for you and that it is what your family was called to do. Most importantly, you pray they always understand their worth in your eyes and in the Lord’s. 

With our fostering, we weren’t looking for a “new life”. Our own children are part of every dream and every plan we have for our family. I pray their memories of our foster care will be full of revelation and deep contemplation, and they will remember why we chose to foster and that it was always worth it.

It is hard to put your life on display for strangers who work in foster care. It is painful to watch parents choose not to fight for their children. It is difficult to reassure a child that “everything is going to be okay” when in the moment, you are trying to believe it yourself. It seems impossible to hold a four-pound baby while she is withdrawing from an addictive substance. The fact remains, we serve a sovereign God. When all seems lost, He is our refuge and dwelling place. 

There is so much heartache and devastation in foster care but I am so thankful for the redemptive stories He continues to weave.

Foster care isn’t always easy, but it is always, 100% of the time, worth it.