It begins with surrender. When I started the journey I didn’t know what the cost was. I didn’t know that it was going to be full of love and full of pain. Even though the story started when I was born I will only go back to 2007.
I’ve worked with children for years now and because I’ve traveled all over the world I’ve seen some of the poorest conditions where children live, survive, and some how push through the worst environments to take their breath. In 2007, while I was interning for a ministry that fights for justice amongst the orphans and widows of the world my heart started getting stirred for the orphans in the United States. While I know eventually I will be taking care of many orphans all over the world I knew that there were children right in my country that needed the arms and love that I had to give. While my circumstances where not optimal for a child over the years I started to settle more into what I was called to do in LA. At the beginning of 2010 my heart started getting stirred to passionately pursue the heart of God.
The heart of God is so different then the face of God. Many I know contend to see the face of God. Moses asked to see the face of God and he saw the goodness of God pass before him but David was a man after the heart of God. David a radical lover of God went through it all. As we read through the journey of David we see the path that he went on for the heart of God was one of trial, pain, joy, and complete reliance on the love of God. Going after the heart of God costs everything. Jesus highlighted the 2 most important things that we have to go after One, Love the Lord with everything in you. Two, is loving others as you love yourself. The greatest thing that a man can do is lay down his life for another. What does that even look like? Are we as the western bride aware of how we go after those two things that God as given as the highest values of the Kingdom?
Knowing this, at the beginning of 2010 I set my heart to learn how to pursue the heart of God. I knew that it would cost everything. I knew it would be uncomfortable, and could not be done in my own strength but walking out the journey is a lot different then saying you know. I just want all of His heart whatever it costs me. So…I decided to go after being a single foster to adopt mother. I decided to journal my journey because I know there are a lot of myths and lies that we can believe about this topic and there are families that don’t know that they can give a child love and create a life giving environment for a child who is not able to stay with their birth parents and that it’s not that hard. As I’ve gone through my process I actually been quite impressed with the amount of support is given to parents who want to do this program.
The United States doesn’t have orphanages like other countries they put these children in homes trying their best to create places where they are in family structures as much as possible. The assistant for parents with the programs that are available are phenomenal compared to the rest of the world which, have no assistance for children or don’t even care about their abandoned children. I’m so proud to live in a country that over all doesn’t partner with the orphan spirit. Where we get to take our children and put them in home environments where at least they are fed and don’t have to prostitute themselves out just to be able to eat. I’m not saying there aren’t problems within the system and someday I’d love to be able to work at a governmental level developing policy that would greatly benefit the structure of care for foster children but we are doing a lot better then other countries.
Through out this blog I’m going to bring in statistics and current data about children in the system and break some of the lies out there about foster children and what they are really like. I even may go into what they taught us in the classes because I believe it will help to understand the benefits of what we are doing in this country for our children. Many people don’t adopt from the US because they believe something that isn’t true and I would like to bring some education to the matter. I strongly believe in education because of the awakening that happens when people understand what the truth is.
Please follow me through this journey and leave comments telling me your stories through being a parent or a child that has gone through the system.
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