Thoughts about Foster Parenting [part two]…

I have heard people say, in reference to having children, that when they come along, “Life as you know it is over.” That is not encouraging, is it?

I had always assumed that statement meant that when you have children in your life all the fun stops. There is no more doing the things you love, being free to move about whenever, wherever. You know…life…as you know it….is…OVER.

So, when the phone rang and the person on the other end asked me if my wife and I would accept this child into our home…I did the only thing I knew to do. I panicked and asked her to call my wife instead.

Brave, eh?

The next week [we had a little time to decide] was full of weighing our circumstances, the child’s circumstances, and asking big questions like “what’s best for everyone involved?” or “what is God leading us towards?”

I was worried…and selfish. Was I ready for “life as I know it” to be over?

Then I saw a picture. A beautiful picture. And I knew at that moment, we have to do this. We have to take this child and give all the love we can.

And what I have found [still very early on in this journey] is that what I have always heard was 100% accurate. When you have a child in your life, in your home, that you are responsible for…life as you know it is over.

But what no one ever told me, was that the life you get to keep living is full of so much joy, love, and hope. No one ever told me that when you leave behind life as you know it, you gain something even better!

Our lives have been turned upside down lately…and I thank God for it. This decision to open our home to this child has blessed us far more than we could have imagined. We are on the receiving end of this thing.

I am learning, in lots of ways, that there is something better than life as I knew it.