The ONE Thing You Need to Be a Successful Foster Parent

I started fostering 4 years ago, and through my experience, I’ve realized there’s only ONE thing you need to be a successful foster parent.

This is my secret sauce, my super power, my secret weapon.

It’s me.

And it’s you.

I struggled so much when I first started fostering worrying if I was the best option for the girls and if they’d be better off in a more established home with 2 parents and with Disney vacations.

Thankfully God calmed my self-doubts and fears and reminded me that my girls needed love. I can’t put God in a box like that. I can’t limit the work God can do in my life based on my financial or marital status.

I’ll be honest, 2 months after I got Ava and Sadie, I almost let them be moved into a new foster home because I didn’t think I was the best fit for them. I was exhausted and overwhelmed with all the new things motherhood and foster care brought into my life.

But God showed up. He intervened. He kept the girls in my home, and that day I felt God’s strength and sufficient grace to continue this journey.

All God is asking me to do for my girls is show up and love on them. Yes, Disney would be such a great perk, but that’s not what they NEED.

My girls were experiencing the hardest situation of their life as they were removed from their biological parents and placed in my home. They just needed to be loved on. That’s it.

Don’t over complicate your role in your foster children’s stories. You’re not their fairy godmother or even their fun aunt. You’re there to step into the hard places with them and love on them in a parenting role.

So before you discredit yourself in your ability to be a foster parent, ask yourself if you have a heart big enough to love on a child in need?

I was 24 years old, single, and living in a crappy 700 square foot apartment. If God can use me in those circumstances, God can use you.

“There’s never a perfect time to foster or adopt. Just a lot of opportunities to say YES despite the many reasons to say NO.” -Jason Johnson.

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