By Bethany Weaver
In late October, God stirred our hearts toward foster care. Two weeks later, I lost my job. That action propelled us to officially pursue becoming foster parents.
In our area, the need is so great we received calls on three babies to consider even before our home study was complete. The paperwork was easily finished, and we thought, “Wow! This is going so well- we could welcome a baby into our home by Christmas.” Then began the delays.
First, my dad had a heart attack followed by surgery and our licensing agent became ill, so home studies were delayed. Then, we heard the tragic news that a child in foster care had drowned causing regulations to be stricter (we have a pool, so this affected us). Finally, we had everything submitted and began the waiting process. Three times we submitted our home study for approval only to be told that something else needed to be corrected.
At last, our agency signed off on our home study which left two approval stops before finalization. All parties involved were so confident it would be approved that we were notified of a baby recently born that needed a foster home. We agreed and were in close contact with the respite foster mom who would keep him for just a few days until our license went through.
The day we were to pick him up, my husband went to the hospital for a leg injury ensuring it wasn’t a blood clot as those run in his family, I developed Covid, and our license remained pending.
I sat in my recliner crying asking, “Why? Lord, I’m not conspiring to rob a bank but rather to open my home to a child in need: why the delays? Why the huge bolder in the road I was so happily skipping down?” I honestly don’t know any of the answers to my "why" questions, but I do know God is writing our story and I have given Him the pen to finish it as He chooses.
So, I picture myself sitting on an old-fashioned front porch with lemonade in one hand and a cookie in the other watching the road ahead of me excited to see how God will either clear the impassable road, pave a new road around the bolder or build a bridge over it. Either way, God’s got this!
Friend, will you join me on my proverbial front porch stakeout and see what God will do both in my life and yours?
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