The crazy summer has officially begun for us here. Shaun moved up to Eagle Lake last Friday, and I just moved up with the 2 little boys on Tuesday. We have been incredibly blessed by the new staff housing building already! What a transformation from the 30 some year old trailers!! I will post some pictures soon of our beautiful new home up in the mountains.
Tomorrow our 14 college staff arrive and thus begins a very busy summer of full time ministry. Shaun and I are really praying that God would use us this summer, especially relationally with our staff. I look forward to leading the women's Bible study again this summer each Saturday evening with the 6 female staff. I know that my role will be different this summer as I step out of much of my involvement with the programming of camp and into the role of full time mom to foster kids. Shaun is excited that this being his 3rd summer as Excursions Director he will have a much better grasp of everything involved with leading this important ministry. We would covet your prayers for our marriage, family, and ministry this summer.
Life with 2 little boys has certainly kept us busy for the past couple of weeks. It's been an adjustment to have a 2 year old running around the house. The boys keep me on my toes and I've found that my time is not my own anymore. Lately I've realized how little I've been getting in God's Word since welcoming the boys into our home. As we get into more of a routine up here at Eagle Lake I know I need to start making that a priority in my day again. I understand so much better now why it's difficult for moms of young children to find good quality time to do Bible Study:-)
We have found out that our time with the 2 boys will most likely be short. Things in foster care are always somewhat uncertain until the final moments, but from all appearances we won't be keeping these boys forever. It's proven to be a difficult road once again to travel. We have had to work through the emotions of loving and caring for 2 sweet boys with the realization that they won't be ours forever. Although it's very difficult sometimes we still know that we want to keep taking kids for as long as it takes for God to give us our very own little ones to raise and nurture forever.
love of my life
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Instant parenthood again!
Two days ago we were called by our foster care agency. We weren't supposed to get any more calls until July because we didn't want to have too much on our plates as we move up to Eagle Lake in a couple of weeks, start staff training and enter into a busy summer of camp ministry. So, needless to say, I was surprised when we got a call asking us if we'd be willing to take 2 boys, brothers ages 2 and 5 months. The woman on the other line explained that they were having a hard time finding a place for the boys to go and they might have to split them up to find homes for them. I asked her if she could give me 15 minutes to call Shaun and discuss it before giving a final answer.
After talking it over, we decided that it wouldn't be the best decision to take the boys so I called back and told her that with everything going on in the next couple of months we just couldn't take the boys. She was very nice and didn't make me feel bad about it at all.
But, I did feel bad. I kept thinking about those boys and how they don't have a safe place to go. I thought about how we have a home and love to give and all of the reasons we decided not to take them were really selfish reasons. I called Shaun back just to talk to him more and explain how I was feeling. He agreed that the right thing to do would be to take the boys if they still hadn't found a home for them even though we weren't completely thrilled about it at that moment. The thought of 2 boys seemed very overwhelming to both of us!
I called our agency back and told them we'd had a change of heart and that if the boys were still available we'd take them. She said, "It's not too late, in fact, they haven't even been able to find 2 seperate homes for the boys at this point. I will call DHS and let them know you'll take them."
And that was that. About 3 hours later we were loading up the boys into our minivan (good thing we got that minivan when we did!) and driving home. The 2 year old seemed very scared at first. He had just been taken from the only people he knew and put into a van with complete strangers. He was shaking and clinging to the DHS caseworker. He didn't shed a tear, but looked terrified.
It's been 2 days now and they've both really warmed up to us. It's challenging to parent 2 active little boys, but I just pray each day that God will give us the wisdom and stamina to do this ministry well. We still miss our little Jeremiah very much but we know that our time with him is done and now we must move onto parenting these little guys. I hope that my heart will only grow larger as we welcome each new little one into our home because it is not easy to love and let go.
After talking it over, we decided that it wouldn't be the best decision to take the boys so I called back and told her that with everything going on in the next couple of months we just couldn't take the boys. She was very nice and didn't make me feel bad about it at all.
But, I did feel bad. I kept thinking about those boys and how they don't have a safe place to go. I thought about how we have a home and love to give and all of the reasons we decided not to take them were really selfish reasons. I called Shaun back just to talk to him more and explain how I was feeling. He agreed that the right thing to do would be to take the boys if they still hadn't found a home for them even though we weren't completely thrilled about it at that moment. The thought of 2 boys seemed very overwhelming to both of us!
I called our agency back and told them we'd had a change of heart and that if the boys were still available we'd take them. She said, "It's not too late, in fact, they haven't even been able to find 2 seperate homes for the boys at this point. I will call DHS and let them know you'll take them."
And that was that. About 3 hours later we were loading up the boys into our minivan (good thing we got that minivan when we did!) and driving home. The 2 year old seemed very scared at first. He had just been taken from the only people he knew and put into a van with complete strangers. He was shaking and clinging to the DHS caseworker. He didn't shed a tear, but looked terrified.
It's been 2 days now and they've both really warmed up to us. It's challenging to parent 2 active little boys, but I just pray each day that God will give us the wisdom and stamina to do this ministry well. We still miss our little Jeremiah very much but we know that our time with him is done and now we must move onto parenting these little guys. I hope that my heart will only grow larger as we welcome each new little one into our home because it is not easy to love and let go.
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