Me and Heather are wanting to start foster parenting. Are there any AFFers with experience to share? Btw, we have thought about this for a few years, so this decision has already been made. I am just seeking experience from an Apostolic point of view from those of you who have knowledge about foster parenting. I look forward to your responses, thanks and God bless.
My husband and I fostered a brother and sister ages 6 and 7. We adopted them after 2 years. That has been 10 years ago, and while the road has been difficult, we are now starting to see the fruit of our labor. It isn't easy by anymeans to foster, but worth it if you understand all of the issues involved.
My husband and I were foster parents for mentally & physically disabled children several years ago.
Foster parenting is a very trying, yet very rewarding experience. You have the opportunity to give love and stability to a child who may have never known such things before.
God Bless you and your wife for wanting to be foster parents!
Me and Heather are wanting to start foster parenting. Are there any AFFers with experience to share? Btw, we have thought about this for a few years, so this decision has already been made. I am just seeking experience from an Apostolic point of view from those of you who have knowledge about foster parenting. I look forward to your responses, thanks and God bless.
I think the world of people that are foster parents and work with foster children in court.
Having seen alot; I would implore anyone thinking of becoming a foster parent; to only foster children who are younger than your own.
Many have NO IDEA what some of these kids have been through and the kinds of abuse they may have experienced. You want your children influencing them and not the other way around.
I was a Sunday School teacher for foster children of a family in our church. I think people who do this truly have servants' hearts and deserve EXTRA stars in their crowns.
BUT, the hardest thing in THE WORLD was when this precious little soul was adopted. I STILL think about him especially at Christmas time when I put out the gifts that he gave me and my husband. The family that adopted him by all accounts are a wonderful Christian family and he is being brought up in church. He is a very fortunate little guy.
They will steal your heart! Are you ready for that? I know that I could never be that strong but pray blessings for those that are.
We did foster care for several years before we adopted Justin and then again after his adoption. Once we added Keith to our family, we stopped doing foster care completely.
It was a good experience, but by no means was it an easy one.
Newman's advice is extremely important. Do NOT take any children who are older than your youngest child. Remember that these kids are not in foster care because they came out of loving, caring, nurturing environments. They're in foster care because the homes they came from were disasters. Not just a little bad. If they are a "little bad", then the judges will usually just order parenting classes or something of the sort. Nope. These kids have seen and experienced things that most of us never have and never will. Expect that they will bring those experiences with them into your home. Be ready to help them get past them and deal with them.
If you are opposed to children seeing a counselor, then foster care is not for you. Most kids in foster care NEED to see a counselor.
Don't expect the kids to be grateful. Unfortunately, in their eyes, most of the time, you will be the bad guy. The good guys will be the parents who abused them. It doesn't make sense, but it's the way it is. If you can't live with that, then foster care is not for you.
Don't expect to make money from doing foster care. You get paid a stipend. But believe me, it's not near enough to cover all of the things that these children need. It's going to cost you to do this. Be ready for that.
I know that all of this sounds very negative. But on the flip side, let me tell you - when you take the kids to school at a place like the Board of Developmental Disabilities and the teachers come to you and tell you what a change they've seen in the children since they've been with you, it will all be worth every bit of it. Or when you have to give a group of kids back to the biological family because the judge orders it. But then the foster worker tells you six months later what a change the biological parents have made, it's all worth it. Or even just knowing that the six months or year that a child spends with you is much less than you would have wanted, but understanding that that six months or year is probably the best year in that child's life - well, it's worth it.
I'm sorry this is so long. But you've hit a subject I am passionate about. Best wishes and God bless you as you start this adventure!
We had a woman now in her 80's that raised foster kids for years. She adopted one little Korean girl and raised her.
That little Korean girl is now in her 30's married and raising three adopted American kids and is a great blessing to our church family.
Another family in our church adopted a newborn girl of mexican descent. They allready had two boys in grade school.
There little girl is now in high school and she plays flute on my praise team at our church.
In fact in two weeks we are having her and 6 other girls from her high school playing flutes for us on a sunday morning.
The experience's of these families have been very positive.
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God has lavished his love upon me.
Me and Heather are wanting to start foster parenting. Are there any AFFers with experience to share? Btw, we have thought about this for a few years, so this decision has already been made. I am just seeking experience from an Apostolic point of view from those of you who have knowledge about foster parenting. I look forward to your responses, thanks and God bless.
that is awesome Bro Eastman.. I admire you and your wife for this decision. I am sure you will make a difference.
My parents were able to take in some children when my older siblings were being raised. I was just a baby in their late teens, and don't remember alot... as my brother and I were really a second family... but I will say from what I see today, the lives of the kids were forever impacted for the good. One family had several kids and my parents took the girl, this woman is still serving God today in an Apostolic church in Texas... she had several siblings and the others died untimely deaths involving deep sin... I think my parents regretted not taking all of the kids when they were little... as the boys died of suicide in a jail, drug overdose, and Aids after really rough lives. My parents were thinking of the fact they were raising their own family of girls.... Later my father took a young teen boy who was in an abusive situation.... gave him a home and helped him establish his life as an adult.
I don't have any first hand experience myself...but will tell you that the investment into the lives of others is never wasted. I've always admired my parents for their dedication to people..
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