One year ago tonight (almost to the minute), two scared little kids (a brother and sister) came into our home after spending a long day in a DCFS office and getting medical exams before their placement would officially begin. This little red bag held the only belongings that they came with. The broken pieces of their past are now intersecting with our family as we all join together in this new uncertain future.
At that moment we went from two kids (age 4 & 1) to four kids, four and under in our home. People look at us as though we are crazy, and to be honest most days I look at us and think that we’re crazy! One year later, we’re still crazy! But, we have grown so much. We have been challenged. We have failed. We have succeeded. We have laughed. We have cried. But through it all, we have had our eyes opened and our hearts tuned to the world around us.
For a large portion of my life, I existed in a world where it was easy compartmentalize the brokenness that existed around me. Our culture often teaches that. We are taught to self preserve and to protect ourselves from hard things. To “move to the better neighborhood.” Foster care flips that all upside down. The brokenness is no longer a place that you can drive around or avoid, it’s now in our home and we have been tasked with helping to pick up the pieces while having our own imperfections in our own family. It is messy when these worlds collide, but it is beautiful.
I have seen my wife work tirelessly and give her whole heart for these kids, and I have seen our boys share their family, their time, and their possessions. At the age of five and two they have loved in ways that most adults never will and I am extremely proud of the way that they have handled this.
There is beauty in this redemptive process. As much as I feel like we are helping these kids, God has been using this experience to reveal things that were buried deep in my own heart. He’s been opening my eyes to an imperfect system and a broken world where not everyone has the same opportunities and has the same chances. A world where people live without hope for a future. A world where there are vicious cycles that are virtually impossible to break with out a gospel intervention. Thankfully, God is in the business of redeeming broken things, and He is meeting us in our mess to do it.
Foster care has taught me how to love and commit even though this situation might change tomorrow. It’s taught me how to pray for and show grace to people who repeatedly disappoint. It’s taught me how to pour myself out for kids who don’t share my dna, race, culture, or even last name. It’s given me a better perspective on the way that God delights in his children, even thought we bring nothing worthy to his feet. We can show up to him with nothing but all of our brokenness tucked in our “little red bag” and He welcomes us in and calls us His own. The days are hard, and nights are long, but I am so thankful to play a part in this journey and I would say yes to it again, because it’s worth it.