Foster Parenting

Some wonderfully dear friends of ours have been feeling a call for a few years now....a call to share their home. After much prayer and consideration, they decided to start the process to become foster parents. The entire process took about 12-18 months, and then they started to wait. They really didn't have to wait long before a placement of a child was needed, unfortunately that one didn't work out. My friend had become very ill with a bacterial infection. Once she was finally better, she received a call on a Thursday...."There is a 2 day old baby....Will you take her?" Some discussion and prayer, a lot of shopping, and a definite "YES"! About 24 hours later, they had added the baby to their family of four. A newborn baby....breathtaking as newborns are! The very next Sunday, July 4th, my friends came to church with their new addition. I knew they were coming, and I knew they were coming to sit in the pew with my family; but what I didn't know was how completely overwhelmed I was going to be. When I saw my friend walking towards me, with that precious baby in her arms, and the most glorious beaming smile on her face....I wept....Okay I sobbed....that big ugly face sob....I did that....yes in church....and yes for a multitude of minutes. Then she handed me the baby, and I snuggled her the entire church service....still fighting back the tears. The girls immediately started asking me if our friends had adopted her, and I was trying to explain briefly and quietly what fostering a child meant...after all we were in church service. Then Cal looked at me.....looked at the baby and said...."Why are we getting a new baby?" Everyone around us chuckled quietly, and I told him the baby was not ours and that she was our friends' baby. They will have probably have her for at least a year. She is going to be so blessed by this family, and they are going to be so blessed by her. Our God Is Awesome!