My husband and I are house parents in a WinShape Home for foster children. In the twelve years that we’ve lived in The Rock, GA doing this, we have raised 24 kids, taken 10 of them off to college, seen five of them get married, we’ve become grandparents, and I’ve cooked more family dinners than I care to count. We get to walk out the Gospel in a very tangible way in the lives of these children. We call it a “life interrupted,” not in the sense that the kids will interrupt us with a hundred questions every day (they will), but that God did not leave us where we were or the path that we were on; He interrupted our lives with salvation and a new purpose. And this is what WinShape Homes provides for these children – the vehicle through which God interrupts their lives, putting them on a new path and giving them a new purpose. We are blessed to be a non-profit fully funded through the Cathy family of Chick-fil-A. Our organization keeps us equipped with current skills and trainings for working in foster care, as well as providing for every need of the kids in our care all the way through college or job training after high school. Our grown kids still come home for holidays, call us Mom and Dad, and consider our house home.
“…for in You the fatherless find compassion.”
Hosea 14:3 (NIV)
We never have two days exactly alike. Our days can be hectic and life is messy when you work with kids from trauma backgrounds. We are firm believers in do-overs and that God graciously gives us all a chance to have a clean slate each day. Sometimes the successes are big, like watching one of our kids graduate from college. Sometimes they are small, like our child who has lived with us for four years has just taken a shower and come out clean for the very first time. We celebrate them all. Kids come to us at so many different stages of life and we don’t always know how long a child will be with us; our time to be an influence is limited. We try to stay mindful of this and make moments matter. We try to provide experiences to our kids that are unique, teach life lessons, and bring joy and fun to our family.
At the beginning of 2020, Covid-19 began to unfold. However, the impact didn’t hit us directly until March 12th. We had just taken a new placement in our group foster home two days before. We were less than 24 hrs away from taking one of our senior daughters to Philadelphia for her senior trip. We had wrapped up leading a small group for other foster and adoptive parents the week before, taking a pause because the next two months were booked solid on our calendar. It wasn’t so much a surprise when Covid came; we were ready. My discerning husband had been watching what was happening globally and knew it was coming; we were never in danger of running out of food or toilet paper, however I do wish I had bought more Clorox wipes. But even being prepared, the life pause was still dramatic. School was paused, travel was paused, things our two seniors had looked forward to all year were cancelled one by one, our college son was very suddenly back home, and our adult daughter that lived in Kuwait was jobless and also back at home. We had twelve people. At home. All day. Then, what looked like a pause became a stop.
To be continued…Waters in the Wasteland