Fostering Love...not just to the babies.

today should be an outfit post.

but honestly there is way more on my heart

than what I am going to wear this week.

heck...I'm lucky if I get my hair done each day.

and if I did take pictures of my outfits each day

you would see that more than likely I wear the same jeans

that were on the floor from the night before....maybe three days in a row!

This foster care journey we are on definitely isn't an easy one.

Not only have we fallen in love with the babies.

But we love their parents.

We have met them.

We have hugged them.

And I have told them that I love them.

Both of them.

We are their biggest cheerleaders.

We want for them to experience success.

To stay positive.

And they are so appreciative of us.

It is so sweet of them.

Their gracious words.

Their heartfelt thankfulness.

So much so that when dad's translator started to translate to me

how grateful he was that his babies were in our home

 even she started to cry.

I cry a lot when I am in their presence.

I ache for them.

As I fall more in love with their children,

I ache for their pain.

When we first received the call to go get our fingerprinting completed

because children were being removed from their home that afternoon

I cried the whole way to the sheriff's department for my appointment.

I cried for mom and dad.

Imagining how their whole world was going to change

in that one afternoon.

Imagining what it would be like to sit in an empty house

once filled with lots of little children.

It didn't matter what they had done or what happened

or didn't happen to have their children removed.

They were still going to experience pain.

Pain and heartache I can't even imagine.

It was one of the first things we learned in our classes.

But I didn't have to learn it there.

It is what Jesus Christ himself taught while he was on this earth.

Not to judge others.

In our classes we talked about not judging the parents.

We don't know their history.

We don't know how they were raised.

Who taught them or didn't teach them.

They need to be loved and respected.

They are the parents and these are their children.

So many people want to assume that horrible things happened

and that is why the children were removed.

They ask us if we hate the parents.

We surprise them with our response.

We love them.

Because we love their children.

And that is one of the most special parts of this foster care journey

that has surprised us the most.

Our relationship with the parents.

They don't feel threatened by us.

They feel loved.

We feel loved.

and that is what Fostering Love is all about.