Spirit Of Adoption

Some of you know that our family chose about 4 years ago to be a foster family. With this came a lot of uncertainty that we had never really experienced before. When you Foster children the hope is always reunification, but sometimes the opportunity for adoption arises. These opportunities can be uncertain in themselves even after the adoption goes through there's a time period where family members of the child can appeal the adoption. So there's a saying in the foster care world, "Nothing is done, until it's done."

Even so we have decided to have a spirit of adoption from the very beginning. We know that the likelihood of the child going back to their parents is high. So far 6 out of 7 have, but we also know we don't know what tomorrow will bring. It can be as fast as a phone call to get a placement and as fast as a phone call that they are reunited. Because of this we're going to choose to love the child like they are own for today.

This can be an attitude that we can have with our communities that we live in as well. We might say to ourselves this is not where I want to settle down, or I don't see myself retiring here. However, if we have the spirit of adoption we can love our town like it's our own for today because we truly do not know what tomorrow holds. In fact we are not guaranteed we will have a tomorrow.

So how can you have a spirit of adoption for the community that you live in now, even if you won't be here forever? I talk about some of this and a blog earlier this year called Becoming Apart.Go check it out, but today I want to talk about an old saying that I heard from my mother-in-law. "Always leave things in better condition than when you found it."

When our foster babies/children come into our family they have been through so much, more than the majority of us have ever been through. My job, as a foster mom, is to love them where they're at, and help love them to forward healing.

As citizens of our community we have the same call maybe our community has been through some stuff. Ups and downs and just needs it's people to love it where it's at. So much so to love it towards forward healing.

My foster child's bio parents may have made decisions that I do not agree with, and would never make myself. But it is not my job to control the past, but to invest in the future.

In your town you might not like what past administrators have decided for the town, or you may not have made the same decisions that they made. But as citizens of a town it is our job not to try to control the past, but to invest in it's and in the here and now, so that it can we can have a brighter future.