Their ages were 3 and 1. My heart was pounding as I walked out to my vehicle, their mother and grandfather holding them close behind me. It was my first removal of children from a home, and I had been trained to expect difficulty on these occasions. Trained to expect harsh confrontation from biological parents, trained to know who to call in an emergency, trained to bring law enforcement with me if I felt that the situation warranted it. This emotion of fear had paired strangely with a sense of relief… these children would no longer have to live in an unsafe home.
We fitted car seats into my car so I could take the children to their next destination – a foster home. Here, their foster family would make sure they would be safe until their mother and grandfather could get the help they needed to provide a safe, drug-free environment and stable life. I watched as the children said goodbye to their mother and grandfather, the two people who had raised them until this point, though not in the safest way. Despite their current circumstances, it was evident to me that their family didn’t love them any less. I closed the car doors and drove away.
As the children and I arrived at their new home, we walked up to the front door and were met with the warm, inviting smiles of their foster mother and father. They knelt down by the children and asked if they wanted to come in to have a meal and play with some toys. The children were quiet and wary – after all, they were in a strange new place with strange new people. All they ever knew was the home they were raised in. These children were always home with a family member, despite that family member often being under the influence of illegal substances. The foster parents gently guided the children and myself through the home and showed us each room, including the bedrooms which they would be able to call their own. New toys were scattered around the living room, and the smell of a warm meal was wafting through the halls.
Watching this interaction – two completely different worlds colliding – brought hope to a sad, unfair situation. As a social worker, I knew my role was to assure the children had everything they needed before leaving the children to begin the next chapter of their story there. However, I couldn’t help but want to do more – to help in a deeper, more meaningful way – knowing that there are so many foster families out there that could use support.
The road of foster care is difficult for everyone involved. However, as I stood by the quiet little children in the new house, I could see that these foster parents were committed to giving them all of the love and care that they could give.
In 2019, the Lord tapped me and my husband on the shoulder and said this was the area in which we could and should serve. We listened and reached out to West Shore’s Foster Care Team (now called Family Advocacy Ministry) and got connected with a foster family. We and a team of other volunteers supported this family for several years through prayer, meals, transportation, and babysitting help. So much was gleaned in those years, the most important being that God’s faithfulness will always prevail and provide. Thanks to my experiences as a social worker, I understood just how deeply the children were impacted when they were removed from their homes and placed in ones that were foreign to them. Serving this foster family allowed my husband and I to understand how much these unknowns impacted the family we served. After all, they were quite literally stepping into an unfolding story – court appointments with unknown outcomes, length of time the children would remain in their care, new caseworkers on the case, new evidence coming to light. We were able to build a strong friendship, one that allowed the foster parents to share hardships with us and be honest about how they were feeling about being foster parents in a system that is so unjust and broken at times. This opened our eyes to how we could best serve them.
I learned that so much of being a foster parent is complete dependence on the Lord. We watched this family go through trials and tribulations with each child that came into their home. Regardless of how they felt in those moments, their faith never wavered. They always knew the Lord had a plan. Today, this family is a family that we continue to look to as we journey through parenthood ourselves. We still share joys, hardships, advice, and prayer with them. We’ve even been able to serve alongside them in other capacities at West Shore, which has been a true joy and gift from the Lord.
Opioid addiction, neglect, abuse, malnourishment, uninhabitable living conditions…the list goes on. Children deserve safe, warm, loving homes that can provide (at a minimum) their most basic needs. Foster families not only open their homes to these children, but they also open their hearts. Stepping into our church’s Family Advocacy Ministry changed us in ways we never expected, reminding us again and again that when we say yes to the Lord, He equips us for every moment. As we look ahead, our prayer is simply to remain faithful to whatever He asks of us next.
If you’re interested in serving alongside a foster family through our Family Advocacy Ministry, you can learn more here.
