Four years ago I was a recently divorced woman in her early [30s] struggling to find my way. I knew God was calling me to be a woman quite different than who I was at the time. I remember literally looking in the mirror one day and sobbing at the woman I saw. I knew I was not the woman my heart desired to be. I committed to changing my life and making a life that was fulfilling and one I was proud of.
Over the next year, I changed jobs and bought a ‘fixer upper.’ The house I bought would require extensive work to transform into my vision and most of which I would have to do myself in order to afford it. The house was a large [four] bedroom home…which I told my friends at the time was meant for ‘more’ even though I really didn’t know what ‘more’ meant.
Just a couple weeks after moving into my new home while in the midst of half-torn out floors, ripped out cabinets, and unending paint projects, I received an email from my pastor at church. Honestly, I only read them occasionally, but this time my interest was caught by an informational session about foster care.
I did not know anyone who fostered children or who was raised in a foster home. I really knew nothing about it, but my heart felt called to learn more. When I proceeded to ask my mother, who was helping me with the renovations, ‘Would you go with me to this informational session about foster care?’ She said ‘WHAT?!’
After lots of warnings and discouragement that this new house and new job were more than I could handle and that fostering a child was the LAST thing I needed to be doing at the moment… she went with me to the session. What I heard that evening about foster care gave me chills and scared me, but it also pulled at my heart in a way I couldn’t stop thinking about.
I continued to pray and work through the idea of taking on children of trauma as a single full-time working woman. After lots of contemplation, on Mother’s Day of 2015, I completed my application and took the next step to become a foster mom and beginning a new adventure.
Fast forward to a year later with my 4th foster child, a 13-month-old baby boy, who was filling my heart with so much joy and helped me to realize I wanted a longer-term placement and potentially one to stay forever. Up until then, I had really only focused on temporary placements but was cautiously open to fostering-to-adopt if the option presented itself. At my caseworkers next home visit, I revealed my desire to be a child’s forever home (or at a minimum a long-term placement for a year or more).