the Morons

Imagine you are relaxing in your house when suddenly a stranger barges in, kidnaps you, and takes you to an unfamiliar place. The people holding you hostage are nice enough -- you are comfortable and well-fed -- but they don't let you wander far, and you don't understand why you're there in the first place. On top of that, they throw you into the car and take you someplace different every day, never telling you where you're going. Sometimes it's to some sort of camp that has other prisoners like you (it's not a terrible prison, considering there's a playground and all, but still). Other times they take you to a small room where you get to be reunited with your family for a little while, only to be torn once again from their embrace. You never know when you'll see them again or for how long. Each separation from them breaks another tiny bit of your heart. As dramatic as it may sound, I think this is exactly how little H is experiencing life right now....

When we missed our first-ever call from the foster agency a couple weeks ago, I thought that Jesus was telling us we weren't ready yet. As it turns out, He was simply priming our hearts. Last Thursday afternoon, we got another call. Beth did in fact remember to take her phone to work this time, so a few hours and a frantic Target run later, there was suddenly a two-year-old boy in our house. We'll call him H. It's been both everything and nothing like what we expected. "Nothing" in the sense that H is a perfectly healthy, super smart and well-behaved kid. I was definitely not expecting that. But "everything" in that it's been a roller coaster of emotions: eager to finally see what it's like to be parents; heavyhearted in witnessing the effects of splitting up a family; gratitude for many things, including our extremely supportive friends, neighbors, and co-workers; and exhaustion due to 12 daily hours of non-stop attention! To be honest, it...

Whenever we start to doubt that the Lord knows what He's doing, He almost immediately reminds us that He knows what He's doing. And that He has a great sense of humor. Beth and I are somewhat nervously excited about being foster parents. Nervous because it's going to pop the nice little bubble we live in, but excited because we will have a unique opportunity to influence the future of one or many children's lives. But now that we are nearly three years removed from that first informational meeting at the Fairfax County office, and have yet to influence any futures, it is easy to wonder if we are still walking along the right path or if we have stalled out somewhere. And when we hear about the massive need for foster parents in other areas, it is easy to wonder, why did we choose one of the wealthiest areas in the world, where there are only 200-some-odd foster children in a county of 1.2 million? So twice now, we have asked God whether we are in the right place or w...

This year might look a little different -  We’re going to be foster parents!   We are very excited to be able to step into the lives of families that need some help and encouragement.  Orphan care has been on our hearts for a long time, and in 2015 we knew that God was leading us to start the process to become foster parents.  Now, after two years of meetings, training, paperwork and waiting, we are just waiting for a call! We have told the agency that we’re open to more than one kid at a time and also that we’re ok with any ages, so they could call us with an infant or 18-year-old triplets. We’re trusting that God is going to bring the right kid(s) into our family.  “Bring them into our family” – really, more like “add us to their family.”  The first goal of foster care is that they be reunited with their birth family.  This happens a lot, and it’s good! Yes, it will be sad for us, but that’s not the point – the point is that a kid has a loving ...