Most things are slightly more complicated. Some things are significantly more. Frankly, life would be so much easier if we just didn’t do hard things. But, here we are. Going to the grocery store, choosing the restaurant we’ll eat at, where we will vacation, getting dressed for school or deciding what to eat for an afternoon snack - mundane tasks that require a deep amount of respect for the power they hold over us - to either go well or to leave you wishing things could just be easier. A simple outing you hoped would be quick and painless results in an episode of trauma that derails the entire day and leaves you feeling emotionally spent and utterly exhausted…
Moving towards hard places is not just what we do; in light of the gospel, it’s who we are. We are the kind of people who move towards hard places and broken people because that’s exactly who Jesus has been for us. We move towards, not away, and when we do it says something true about who Jesus is in our lives. Our friends might look at us like we’re crazy, our families might look at us like we’re crazy, we might look in the mirror sometimes and ask ourselves why we’re being crazy - and everyone’s right! It’s crazy! It’s crazy that God would do this for us; and it’s crazy that He would then invite us to do it for others.
It’s arguably the single biggest barrier that keeps people from fostering - the fear of “getting too attached”. It’s an inherent tension in this entirely awkward and broken and beautiful foster care arrangement that never fully goes away - you just kind of learn how to embrace it, live in it and love through it…despite the inevitable. This fear is real, deeply emotional and extremely powerful. It’s not one to be taken lightly or treated flippantly. It’s nuanced and complicated…and it’s winning.
May is National Foster Care Awareness Month. Among the countless things to be aware of and opportunities to get involved, here’s ten things to consider as you work to bring your awareness to bear through action. 1. The data: 400,000+ children in foster care. 100,000+ children waiting for their forever families. And this pandemic isn't helping anything. 2. We’re not merely talking about numbers and data and stats - but instead real kids, real moms and dads, real humans just like you and me. 3. The fact that data rarely changes hearts and that we are predisposed to find reasons why the data is not our problem.
We completely renovated our house before moving in. The process took about 5 months in total, was messy and costly, but in the end worth it. The finished product is beautiful and comfortable and a place we love to call home. But it wasn’t easy getting to this point. It was actually quite dirty - literally. For several weeks there were large piles of dirt sitting in the living room from some foundation being done. During that phase I felt like this house would never be clean enough to live in. But that’s the thing about renovations - things get a lot messier before they get more beautiful. You just have to be willing to see the process through to the end.
I’m convinced for every one couple we see pursuing becoming foster parents, there’s a whole host of others that are privately considering it but aren’t quite ready to publicly confess it. And sometimes the question holding them back the most is - “What questions should we be asking?” The purpose of this post is to provide some context and structure to those private and personal conversations I know many of you are having out there.
I’ve heard it said throughout my life in ministry that, “Ministry is a marathon, not a sprint.” Early on this word picture was helpful for me, serving its intended purpose to build a long-view perspective of faithfulness in work that can often be slow to produce immediate and satisfying results. I’ve used this phrase countless times myself challenging ministry leaders…
The goal of National Adoption Awareness Month (November) is, well, awareness! Not just regarding what it might look like to welcome a child into your family, but also the many other ways you can participate that don’t involve adopting. So while this list is certainly not exhaustive, here’s nine ways those not currently involved with adoption can become more aware it, and practically participate in it.
Supporting families is a massively important part of your church's foster care and adoption ministry. It's easily one of the most predominant conversations to be had every time I'm working with leaders. We all know we need to have systems of support in our church, but what does that actually look like? What points of reference can we use to focus our efforts and truly meet the needs of families who are caring for children from hard places?
We all have an “inner voice” that sometimes whispers to us and sometimes screams at us. Mine is usually preaching a message of fear and doubt when I sense God leading me in a certain direction. Maybe yours is too. It’s asking, “Who are you to think you can make a difference?” or “What if you don’t have what it takes?” or “What if you fail and look foolish to others?” or “Are you sure you’ve heard correctly from God on this?” Your voice could be asking you a million other things right now.
The journey of foster care and adoption is an incubator of seemingly competing emotions, feelings and experiences - none of which are felt lightly or quickly. The tension of everything seeps that much deeper and lingers that much longer. The joy of loving and the heartache of letting go. The thrill of adopting and the grief of all that's been lost. The confusion in the wake of brokenness and the clarity in the face of redemption.
Sometimes the foster care problem feels really big (because it is!), and our people feel really small. There are over 425,000 kids currently in the United States foster care system. No doubt thousands of those are right there in your own state...and perhaps in the very city you sit in while reading this. It's no surprise people in our churches can sometimes feel small.
Foster Dads, Thank you for doing what you're doing. You are loving in some of the hardest and deepest and most complicated places. Places most men go to great lengths to avoid. Yet you, with arms open and hearts broken, have courageously stepped towards them for the sake of others. That is so counterintuitive, remarkable and beautiful. So, thank you.
There’s no “just” or “only” in what you are doing. You haven’t “just” fostered a few or “only” adopted one. Rather, you have significantly altered the trajectory of a life forever. Generations to come will never be the same - not just in the life of the child you are loving but in your life as well, your kids', their kids' and their kids', and even in the lives of those at your church or in the grocery store…
Foster and Adoptive Parents: God is using you to love in some of the hardest places and through some of the most difficult situations. In the midst of all the uncertainties and unknowns that surround what you're doing there are some powerful promises and truths for you that are constant and sure and worthy to be reminded of. Here's just a few...
In the gospel God says, “I see you where you are and I’m coming after you.” This is the whole redemptive story of scripture – a God who sees the distress of His people and moves towards them, not away from them. Hovering over His people like a cloud by day and pillar of fire by night – God was close, but out there.
We began meeting as a core group in a north Houston suburb in the spring of 2008. I was 28 years old at the time with almost 10 years of ministry experience and a clear yet uncomfortable call to do something I never thought I would - plant a church. I recently turned 38 and often find myself thinking...
Stories are redemptive. They humanize powerful messages and help people personally internalize transformative things through the lenses of someone else's experience. It's important that your foster care, adoption and orphan care ministry is consistently sharing stories of how God is moving in the lives of families in your church. It's even more important that your use of stories is helping, and not unintentionally hurting, the broader vision of your ministry. When using stories – whether video, print or live interview style – to undergird the vision and mission of your ministry, ensure they are reinforcing your message and deconstructing false paradigms of your people.
When speaking of the widow's small offering in comparison to that of the rich, Jesus says, "Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had...." (v.3-4)
What a provocatively encouraging statement - that somehow, the value of her offering was not measured in quantity but in humility; not by size, but by sacrifice. Jesus doesn't discredit the offering of the wealthy, He simply redefines that of the poor. In that moment He stops and essentially says to all those around, "Hey, there's something truly profound going on here that I want to make sure you don't miss."
We recently found one of our daughters crying in bed. She seemed fine the last we saw her before going upstairs, so this took us a bit off guard. In a home with four daughters there always seems to be something to cry about, but when she calmed enough to share with us what it was this time, we were shocked. Hitler. That's right, HITLER was on her mind, and apparently had been for the past several weeks. What?! She told us her class was doing a research project at school and each student could select any topic they wanted to learn more about.
