Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel.
Philippians 1:27
It may sound a little like an oxymoron, being Stretched Together, but that is what we get to be as a family when we serve together through foster care. Challenging experiences pull at our hearts and minds and expose our weaknesses causing us to depend on the Lord. They also cause us to see that we are a family and that we need each other. Through serving together in foster care we are stretched together.
We have been doing foster care for two years now through our county and it has been a unique opportunity for our family to pull together and love children who are going through a hard time. Because of their own backgrounds, our children are incredibly compassionate toward other children coming from hard places. Caring for children in your own home and inviting them to live as a part of your family means you inevitably enter into their traumas and hurts as you walk with them through their mess. It is a hard road to walk alongside hurting children who are in the middle of so many unknowns and who carry so many burdens from past hurts. What will happen to their parents, their family, their school, their siblings, their pets?
Even though we know that this is a hard road, we see the value in it for our family. There is value in being stretched together, drawing together as a family and depending on the Lord to love those the world calls the least of these. They are precious children in need of love and care and we are a family blessed with enough love to share. It might look messy to others - and it is - but there is also a beautiful thing about living life this way, striving side-by-side together for the faith of the gospel as we share it with children in need.
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