I was so nervous to become a foster parent!

I was worried I wouldn’t be enough for them. I didn’t have any special training and I’d never been a mom before. For every fear, every inadequacy, there was a person on our team who was there to encourage and support us. When I realized I wasn’t alone in caring for our foster children, I was free to just love and nurture and enjoy watching them grow.

When I first met my child…

I was so nervous! I met both of my daughters at the same time. The thought of going from zero to two kids was intimidating! The oldest was sweet and a little shy and the youngest was a wild child! They both had my heart from the moment we first met. They’ve grown so much over these past seven years. My once shy girl is blossoming into a mature and confident young lady and my wild child, well she’s still pretty wild, but she’s kind and compassionate and absolutely hilarious and I wouldn’t change one thing about her. They both love Jesus and their family and I couldn’t be more proud to be their mom.

As a foster parent, you get used to interacting with a lot of people.

I am so thankful for the in-home therapists, social workers, and advocates who supported us and our foster children. One particularly crazy day, I was enjoying some Saturday morning cereal and cartoons with my two year old foster son when I heard a knock at my door. I hoisted my son onto my hip and went to the door where I saw two well dressed ladies with official badges standing on my front porch. In a panic, I thought, “Oh no! I must have forgotten a therapy appointment or social worker meeting!” Still in my pajamas, I opened the door to usher them inside when my notoriously hyper dog runs right past them and out the front door! I apologized to the ladies as I ran past them, foster son on my hip, in my pajamas, barefoot, down the street trying to coax my dog to stop running. I finally catch up to the dog and I walked back to my house, half bent over holding her collar, foster son on my hip, in my pajamas, barefoot, and I now realize that I have my sons slobbery, sticky, fruit loop cereal pieces stuck in my hair. Still out of breath, I apologized to the ladies who were looking at me like one might look at clowns at a circus, and ushered them inside. I kept saying how sorry I was that I am usually on top of things and I keep a calendar of all his appointments and meetings. I really did usually have it somewhat together! They exchanged confused looks with each other then looked at me and said, “We’re from the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses...” At that point, the whole scene was so silly I couldn’t stop laughing. Which I had to follow with more explaining and apologizing. And I’m sure they still talk about that crazy unkempt woman in the little yellow house. I guess the moral of the story is, get some nice pajamas, you never know when the whole town might see them! Oh, and check those visitor credentials at the door 🤦🏻‍♀️😂