The dreaded "F" word....

Ok, not the "F" word you're probably thinking of. Shame on you ;)

FOSTERING

As in, you know, FOSTER CARE, FOSTER CHILD, FOSTER PARENT, FOSTER HOME....

Why do so many of us have a negative connotation associated with those words? Perhaps we've had a bad experience. Maybe we've been "burned" by "the system" or we are simply afraid. Afraid of the unknown. Afraid of the potential hurt, risk, danger, attachment, influence, you name it....

But let me speak to my fellow Christians here for a minute. It is a Biblical mandate to care for orphans and widows. Do I believe that means everyone is called to this? Actually, yes I do! It may look different for different people and take on different "forms" of "care", but I do firmly believe all Christians are called to this.
The Bible has a lot to say about orphans and widows....
(all NIV)

Exodus 22:22 "Do not take advantage of the widow or the fatherless"

Deuteronomy 10:18 "He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner living among you, giving them food and clothing."

Psalm 68:5 "A Father to the fatherless, a defender of the widows, is God in His Holy dwelling."

Psalm 82:3 "Defend the weak and the fatherless, uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed."

Isaiah 1:17 "Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow."

Zechariah 7:10 "Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other."

Our favorite verse right now is James 1:27. Here it is in a few different translations:

NIV: "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after the orphans and widows in their distress and to keep onesself from being polluted by the world."

The Message: "Anyone who sets himself up as “religious” by talking a good game is self-deceived. This kind of religion is hot air and only hot air. Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world."

NET: "Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their misfortune and to keep oneself unstained by the world."

New Life Version "Religion that is pure and good before God the Father is to help children who have no parents and to care for women whose husbands have died who have troubles. Pure religion is also to keep yourself clean from the sinful things of the world."


Listen, we weren't always so gung-ho about this either. We have had a lot of friends who have fostered over the years and we've seen the good, the bad, the ugly, and the (still) unresolved. We've seen the system work and we've seen the system fail miserably. But one thing remains the same: kids are coming into foster care at an alarmingly high rate and there are not enough foster homes to take them in.

There are plenty of excuses why not to foster.....
....we don't have room!
....we have our own kids.
...we can't afford more kids.
...we struggle enough taking care of our own kids.
...we don't have the time to invest in them.
...our kids are still too small.
...I don't want to get too attached.
...I don't think I could handle the tough situations/abuse/neglect/etc.

There's plenty more where those came from but you get the idea. And to be honest? I've probably said those very same things at least once...each! But in January of this year God got ahold of my heart and completely changed my outlook on this thing called foster care. 

I believe the word-for-word sentence that has come out of my mouth multiple times is this: 
                "It takes a very special person to be able to foster...and that is just not me."
Well, I should know better by now than to say something like that out loud. I am totally eating my words  - God has completely changed my heart and my mind.

Here's how the whole thing kind of came about: My husband and I have spoken about adoption multiple times. It's something near and dear to our hearts and we definitely want to adopt at some point. So, in January of 2014 I contacted the regional director for Florida Baptist Childrens Homes. We spoke for a while, and I voiced our interest in "fostering to adopt". She explained how it really doesn't work that way and they can't guarantee anything when a child is placed in our home. You have to just "go with the flow" more or less. A little disappointed, but still feeling like God opened this door for a reason, we decided to continue pursuing FBCH and attended our first Foster Care Licensing class. I think almost immediately we both felt like we were there for a reason - and we should definitely pursue foster care, without any "strings attached". 

Long story short, by week 2 or so we were ready to go. "Bring on another kid!" we joked. We've opened our hearts and home to whatever the Lord wants to use them for....a week, a few months, or forever. We are just saying "Here we are, Lord. Use us!"

And we will keep you posted along the journey!




If you'd like more information on Foster Care through Florida Baptist Childrens Homes, please email us at santanafosteradopt@gmail.com and we can get you in touch with the "right people".

Family Introduction

We are the Santanas.
We got married in 2007, bought our first home in 2009, had our first son in February of 2011, and our second in July of 2013. Jose is a firefighter/paramedic and Ashley is a SAHM. Our older son (C) is 3 years old and our youngest (D) is 10 months old.

We have discussed at various times in our relationship the issue of adoption. Ashley was adopted and so the topic has always been very dear to her heart. We looked into different adoption agencies, different countries, etc but never really "settled" on anything in particular.

Let me pause here to explain why we feel strongly about adoption. We see it not only as a Biblical mandate to care for orphans (and widows; see James 1:27 as well as other posts) but also as a beautiful picture of the Gospel. When we couldn't help ourselves, when we didn't even realize that we needed help, Jesus gave Himself for us, thereby allowing us to be forever adopted into God's family. We want our biological children to see and understand diversity, true obedience to Christ, living out our faith, and learn to love people with different backgrounds and cultures.

We are still at the very beginning stages of our foster care journey. We are waiting for our license to come in so we can start making a difference for these kids.

In Collier County there are LESS THAN 50 Foster homes and MORE THAN 200 children in foster care. Those numbers are ridiculously off-balance. We realize we are still new to this, and don't have a lot of experience yet. But it doesn't take "experience" to tell you that those numbers don't match up, and an innocent child shouldn't have to be separated from their siblings, moved out of the county, or bounced from home to home simply due to a lack of available, loving, foster homes. Feeling so strongly about this, we have decided to make it our mission to not only love on these children, but to recruit new foster families to join us in doing so. Please let us know if there's anything we can do - answer questions, point you in the right direction, go introduce you to some people, etc. We will do whatever we can to promote foster care and get more help.

Thanks for stopping by! Keep checking back for more posts as our foster care journey continues.