Foster Care changes your lives- and your kids.

For today's post I asked my sweet friend Samantha to share about her experience with the foster care system.  Becoming part of the foster care system wasn't exactly her choice.  She isn't a foster parent, she is a "foster sibling".  She has almost as many responsibilities as her parents and experiences the joys and hardships of the system right along side of them.

I believe her parents choice to take on kids from the system was a brave one.  They already had 4 kids, they were past the diaper toddler stage and had hit the difficult years of having teenagers in their house.  Most people in their position would have used the excuse of, "it's to late I am almost done raising my kids", or the"what if it changes my kids life, I don't want to risk my own kids."

Here is what Samantha has to say about her experience.

When my parents told me they were going to become foster parents I didn't really know what to think, I honestly had no clue what it entailed. After becoming a foster family, we all had to make some sacrifices, time, patience, but for me the hardest was space. I now have to share a room with my 7 year old sister, I was not very happy when she first moved in and still get upset every now and then. The hardest thing I personally have gone through was realizing you can't help every child, we had a child who was with us 10 months and ended up being reunited with his family who was on drugs and had abused the children, it just didn't make sense that I couldn't stop that. Some positive things that I've experienced is definitely the diversity that the boys have brought to our family, they bring so much happiness to our home and even when they're screaming you can't help but love them. I think that foster care also made me realize how lucky I really am, as I teenager I hardly ever stop and think that I have a good life but looking at these children helps me to humble myself and want to help them. There have been no social hardships for me personally, all my friends love the babies. I definitely see myself doing foster care or adoption when I am older!

 

I have loved watched Samantha and her family in this journey.  With out her parents trying to teach her to care about others who have less than her, they gave her an opportunity to learn about others needs as they lead by example.  It wasn't just one day of service feeding the homeless, but a life style of serving others.  Their isn't a lot of Thank yous, and there is a lot of heartache.  However,her life is forever change.  Not only is she taking part in helping her parents make a difference, she plans to help others in the future.

Thank you Samantha for sharing your story.

Please pray for Samantha and her family as they love on these little guys that are in their home.  They have had them for while and would really love to have them become a permanent part of their family.  

#fostercareawareness