Here am I... Send me.

I guess I'll start by explaining how we got to foster parenting... Life before that seems so boring and simple.  No one would want to hear about that anyway! 

It all started back in 2010 when we hosted The Truth Project through the summer.  We listened and we learned about having a Biblical Worldview.  My mind swirled with loads of new information, I felt smarter every week.  Then we came to the end of the study, and we heard the proverbial question, "Now what?"  What do you mean, "now what?" It's not enough for me to have all this really great Biblical knowledge?  I have to do something with it?  Good grief.

We ended with a prayerful look at Isaiah 6.  As we heard these words...

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. ² Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. ³ And they were calling to one another:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;
    the whole earth is full of his glory.”

⁴ At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

⁵ “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”
⁶ Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. ⁷ With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”
⁸ Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”
And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”
⁹ He said, “Go and tell this people:

“‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding;
    be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’
¹⁰ Make the heart of this people calloused;
    make their ears dull
    and close their eyes.^[a]
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
    hear with their ears,
    understand with their hearts,
and turn and be healed.”

¹¹ Then I said, “For how long, O Lord?”
And he answered:

“Until the cities lie ruined
    and without inhabitant,
until the houses are left deserted
    and the fields ruined and ravaged,
¹² until the Lord has sent everyone far away
    and the land is utterly forsaken.
¹³ And though a tenth remains in the land,
    it will again be laid waste.
But as the terebinth and oak
    leave stumps when they are cut down,
    so the holy seed will be the stump in the land.”

... We knew God was calling us.  How would we answer? What would we do?  Would we obey the stirring that had begun years earlier, or would we keep the comfy, cozy status quo?

We always knew that God would bring additional children to our home.  My husband was adopted... maybe adoption?  My husband is a children's pastor... maybe a summer camp?  Our kids are getting older... maybe extra friends over all the time?  And then God made his calling very clear. 

Our friends had been fostering for a while.  I thought it was great.  They were crazy... they had to be.  Who would do that?  I was totally happy to observe their craziness from a distance until one day they came to school with a sibling group of three.  The day before they had been at home with their mom in a disasterous situation, the next day they were nestled in our friends' home, in a new school, and coming to church with us.  What a change overnight.  I watched as those kids settled in, learned about Christ, grew and matured, and ended up adopted into a wonderful, loving, Godly forever home. 

As Tony and I saw those kids go through the foster care process, we knew that was our calling.  We knew that God had given us so much.  How could we not give back?  How could we hold so tightly to comfort and ease when so many kids were terrified, neglected, and headed toward destruction.

So we answered the call... "Here am I... Send me."