A Journey of Saying “Yes” to Foster Care

It was a Friday evening when we got the call for a four-day-old baby girl. The person on the other line said, “She has nowhere to go and is waiting at the hospital to be picked up.” Never having been parents before, we walked out of the hospital that night at 22 years old with someone else’s baby and stepped into the beginning of our journey as foster parents. 

It’s always been in our hearts to care for vulnerable kids, but we didn't think that we’d actually step into the call of foster parenting one year into marriage. Although we felt unqualified and nervous, it was clear that God was calling us to step up and open the doors of our home to the kids in our own backyard who had been abused, abandoned, and neglected. 

Over the last seven years, we have seen the devastating reality of substance abuse addiction, domestic violence, and mental health crises wreak havoc on the children in our county. We had no idea that every month, in just Palm Beach County, over 20 kids get removed from their biological parents and placed in foster care. 

Over the last several years, we have cared for 13 children who all came to us with unique stories and challenges. Each time a child is placed in our home, it begins with a phone call: “Something terrible has happened…can you take this child?” And with very little time to prepare, a social worker would be in our driveway with a baby and the very few items that they picked up from the dollar store on the way. Most times, these children show up at our home with only the clothes on their backs.

We knew early on that the goal of foster care was reunification with their families, and that became our personal goal, too. We never expected that caring for the babies that needed us would only be part of our deep passion for being foster parents. Championing the biological parents of these children quickly became one of the sweetest parts of this journey. 

Between Starbucks meetups and park hangouts—when you sit across from a parent who never intended for their life to end up where it is—God began to give us a sincere compassion to not just care for their kids the best way we can but to become a support system and “extended family” to their parents. We knew that whether our foster babies were with us for a day or forever, our family would grow. The unexpected blessing was the relationships we’ve been able to build with the grandmas and the sisters and the bio parents that we never knew we needed in our lives. 

We often describe our foster care journey as the roller coaster ride of a lifetime—we never know when the twists and turns will come and go. I read this quote from the book Reframing Foster Care by Jason Johnson that perfectly described our journey: “It's the mercy of God that He doesn't show us everything that will unfold in our foster care and adoption journey the moment we first say ‘yes’ to it. All the hard would be too unbearable, and all the good would be too unbelievable.”

Fostering has been one of the sweetest ministries in our lives, as well as one of the greatest blessings God has ever given us. 

Learn more about Foster & Adoptive Care at Christ Fellowship.