Two kiddos I never met

I keep thinking about two kiddos that I've never met. That might sound weird but let me explain why. This past weekend I received a call about two children that needed a foster home. With the ages of the children I was unable to take them as a placement because of my job working at the school. At that time we had two weeks of school left and that is quite a lot of time to try to find a sitter for such short notice. Ever since then I keep thinking about them and wondering what home they went to, and how they are doing.  I know we can't say "yes" to every placement phone call we get, and that it's ok to say "no." However, it doesn't make it any easier knowing once again there are children without a home and loving parents to take care of them. Breaks my heart!!! It's also with mixed emotions I write that I look forward to who God has for our family to help next through foster care and/or adoption. I don't look forward to more children being abused, neglected, etc... However, since I know those things unfortunately happen, I look forward to possibly being the home that gets to take those precious children in and tell them how incredibly special they are and how much they are loved not only by us but by their Creator. Will you join us in praying for these precious children? Please pray that not only our hearts but others would be open to opening their homes and hearts up to being the hands and feet of Jesus to these dear souls. How can we expect this world to get better or these children to hear about Jesus if we don't tell them?

  

Our Story!!!

   

With May being National Foster Care Month I thought it would be a good time to share our family's story on how we became foster parents. Having a large family has always been on Nick and I's hearts for as long as I can remember. We have aunts, uncles, and friends that have fostered and adopted, so we have been around this ministry for quite some time. After we had our three biological children we felt the Lord impressing on our hearts more to foster. At first we called and had paperwork sent to us. I'll be honest we looked through the paperwork and put it aside for quite a while. We ended up moving as we were blessed to be able to build a house out in the country in 2007. During the time of moving into our new home the Lord was impressing on our hearts again about foster care. We had no excuse. He had blessed us with a new home that we had more space in, land for children to run and play and good health. We needed to just obey. Thankfully we did! During the time of obeying my husband lost his job, but guess what? The Lord still met our every need through His wonderful provisions and using others to bless our family. Surrendering to God's will for your life does not always mean it will be easier. A lot of times it may seem like it's the opposite. It does mean though you will not walk that journey alone that He has called you too. In January of 2008 we started our classes to officially become foster parents. We went through all the classes, home inspections, fire inspections, physicals, etc... and in September of 2008 we were licensed!!!!!!! It took several months before we received our first placement of children. I won't share every story but our first placement was two teenage girls. Man, did we learn a lot then! At that time we had not raised teenagers yet so our eyes were opened up to a whole new world.  Different placements through the years. Some little children, some teens and some in between. Some came through foster care and some came through respite care(providing short term foster care). Then our Kaitlin came. Kaitlin came as a 10 year old girl the summer before her 5th grade school year. Kaitlin also had a sister that came to live with us as well. Her sister stayed with us for around one year then moved on to get help to meet her needs. I remember Kaitlin with her long brown hair and buck teeth and quiet personality. It took her awhile to warm up to others but when she did she was a giggly, fun girl. You see she had been hurt one too many times in her life so trusting people did not come easy for her. Through time she was able to let her guard down and be a kid instead of a parent. After 2 1/2 years in foster care she officially became ours, although she was already ours in our hearts. Any of you who know Kaitlin now know how God has done a complete transformation in her life. During her time in foster care at youth group she prayed with one of our church helpers to ask Jesus into her heart. She wanted to live her life for Him! To God be the glory!!! She is now in high school and plays in the school band, runs track, is a part of NHS, our church's youth group, helps in our church's nursery, sings with the teens on 5th Sunday, does 4H and shows animals at the fair, and is part of our school's art club where she is one talented young lady. Kaitlin has chose to be a survivor and not a victim. We're beyond thankful that God chose us for her and her for us. We're excited to see what the Lord has in store for our family in the future and who else He may bring to our home through foster care and adoption. So why not? Why not get involved in opening your home up to a child in need? Are your excuses more important then surrendering to God's will? It won't be easy but man will it be worth it!!!

May is National Foster Care Month

May is National Foster Care Month. Being a foster parent myself I know first hand the many blessings that come with this title. Yes, as we all know there are many hard times as well but the joy of getting to bring love to a child's heart far outweighs the hard times. I encourage you to get involved with foster care in your local community in some way. A big way you can get involved is by supporting those who are already providing care and trying to show respect and understanding to them along their journey. Respite care is also a big need in foster care. You can call your local agency to find out more information on how you can provide short term care(respite) to children in foster care to help the children and their foster families. Our local agency in Ashland, Ohio can be contacted at 419-282-5000. Thank you to all the foster families that are currently serving children or have served in the past. Your heart and ministry does not go unnoticed. You're making a difference in not only the children that you bring into your home but also to others around you that see your heart. Thank you for doing your part to further the kingdom of God!!!

Be Relentless!

This morning while getting ready for work I read a post on facebook from a sight called, "Women Made for His Glory." The post was a great reminder of the work God is doing in us and that we need to continue to "be relentless" even when the enemy tries to throw distractions our way. The enemy does not want us to further God's kingdom, and others may not always understand or agree with the chooses you make in following God's call on your life. Rest assured none of that matters compared to you having a willing and obedient heart to "be relentless" to the calling God has put on your life. It won't always be easy, it won't always be pretty even, but it will be worth it! Great reminder for my heart this morning as we're opening our home again to love on kiddos that need us to "be relentless."

Post from Women Made for His Glory...

Satan will try to use any means possible to distract you from what God has called you to do because he knows how dangerous you are to the kingdom of darkness.

Be relentless in your efforts to throw aside every distraction and run the race that God has given you the grace to run!

Empowered to Connect!

A couple weekends ago my husband and I attended a live simulcast training called Empowered to Connect. Man, do I ever wish I had that training years ago going into helping hurt children or even with raising my biological children. Better late than never though:)

Opening our eyes up to what is going on behind the behaviors that we see in children. How to be better equip to help these children overcome their challenges. Learning to understand that what we perceive as willful disobedience may just be to them survival skills.

 I recommend that if you are a foster or adoptive parent, thinking about being one, have biological children or work with children to any degree to read,"The Connected Child", by Drs. Karyn Purvis and David Cross. Also with Wendy Sunshine. I am reading it now and it continues to confirm the information I learned at the training. Bringing hope and healing to our families!!!

Update on Frame ministry!:)

I wanted to write and give our readers an update as to what is going on in the Frame ministry. Since our last blog #way to long ago, #I need to blog more #my kids keep me busy:), a lot has happened.

 Frame had the opportunity to host a table at the National day of prayer breakfast in our local town of Ashland, Ohio. This was my husband and I's first time attending and I must say it was a blessing. We hope to attend again in the future. Thanks to our local church for their sponsorship in this event.

Right now we currently do not have any foster children. Two of the children we had living with us last time I wrote have moved on. One of them got to go live with their family and is doing great. We're still keeping in contact with each other. They text and call and we get to stay involved in this little blessing's life. We're so thankful for that. Please pray for the other child. They're still struggling in their journey.

Two other kiddos that used to live with us continue to come and visit and soon will be returning to live with family. Their family member is also wanting to stay in contact with us and allow us to take the kids to church. Needless to say we're once again very thankful.

This school year we have a foreign exchange daughter, Ivy, from Hong Kong living with us. She is the same age as our other daughters. She is settling in nicely and is a blessing to have in our home. We're learning from her and hopefully she is learning from us as well.

Frame is collecting duffle bags again for our local foster and adoptive agency. It is SO IMPORTANT that children receive a duffle bag instead of a trash bag to put their items in, if they even get to bring anything. These precious children are not trash, but are created by God and deserve to be loved and treated like the treasure they are. If you would like to donate to our duffle bag campaign please message us on this blog or email us at frame@bethelchapel.com. You can call our local church office also at 419-962-4763 and leave a message for Frame. Please be in prayer for these kiddos who will be receiving these duffle bags. Our biggest prayer is that they know they are loved and accepted. Even in the struggle of their daily lives they're loved not only by us but more importantly by the One who created them. He has a wonderful plan for their lives. Would you consider being a part of that plan?

Thanks for taking the time to read our updates. Praying for you and your family!

Rejecting love

1 Corinthians 13 is known as the "Love chapter". Verse 13 says,"and now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love". When we think of love we may think of a relationship with someone or feelings towards someone. Maybe we think of hearts and sacrifice or a warm, fuzzy feeling inside about something. But sometimes through our actions of loving, we see pain show its ugly face. We may reach out to someone and they reject our love or we may have unrealistic expectations on how we should receive love or "lovely" things.

Through the ministry of foster care my husband and I have experienced this many times. We are not perfect parents by any means, and many days we probably look like we're a mess, but we do try to pour ourselves into these hurt children and love them. The rejection didn't seem so heart wrenching at first, but through years of having this feeling it starts to wear down on you. It's hard to understand how someone who came from neglect or abuse would hate the fact that someone is loving them and meeting their needs. We've learned through the years that kids act this way because it is us providing these needs for them and not their family members who are suppose to be. This angers them. Even though we know this and are not surprised when the rejection occurs, it still HURTS!

This whole scenario makes me think of Jesus and how many times I have rejected His love in my life. I am so thankful He is God and I am not. I would've gave up on myself years ago. Jesus paints a beautiful picture of unconditional love through the good and bad times. I Corinthians 13:4-8a says,"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails". Wow, that's a tall order to follow. When I read this passage I definitely see areas in my life where I need to look more like Jesus. In my prayers recently I have been praying about someone in my life who continues to reject my love and tries to hurt me, yet the right thing for me to do is to continue to pour out love to that person. Honestly, sometimes I don't want to though. Man do I ever need Jesus? I need Him, I need Him, I need Him. Only through Jesus can I love this person and only through Jesus can I see areas in my own life that need to change and surrender them at His feet. We all need Jesus!!!!!!!

Would love to hear your thoughts on this topic.