Friday, November 14, 2008

Arizona's Waiting Children

Today was the final visit for my homestudy. I am so thankful that I got a really sweet homestudy specialist; I've heard stories from others in my group that weren't so lucky! After the homestudy, I went online to view some of AZ's waiting children. Don't look unless you are prepared for your heart to be broken. I look at these innocent children and think, "I wish I could help them all." I know that I'm not being realistic, but each face pulls at your heartstrings and you think to yourself, "This child deserves a home too." In reality, there is so much to think about when deciding to become a foster parent.

Nathan and I pre-kids

When we first married, Nathan and I decided that we wanted to be foster parents before having children. But life happened and our plans changed and now we find ourselves just starting the process with a two year old and one on the way! For me, the scariest part of becoming a foster parent is the possibility of exposing my children to abuse. It is estimated that 90% of all foster children have been sexually abused. From my experience working at a Rape Crisis Center, I have seen that many sexually abused children will imitate the behavior. Of course, that makes me fear for Elon. Even though I am going to keep a good eye out on the kids, I realize that I won't be able to see everything all the time. So, I am praying that the Lord will point us to the child that will not engage in such behaviors and that He will keep all of our children safe. I just can't wait to meet the child the Lord has waiting for us!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

New Mom,

You asked me a question on my blog about Mrs. Meyers dish soap and it dawned on me that I never answered your question,sorry.

Yes I find the Mrs. Meyers to be quite sudsy. It's not quite as good at getting rid of grease as Dawn but it works quite well and I love the smell and how gentle it is.(o:

Blessings,
Michele

Anonymous said...

I was a foster kid and we were not abused in our parents home and would have not abused anther child! but my sister was abused by another foster child living in the same foster home we did.Funny how the home we were supposed to be safe in is where we were abused.

New Mom said...

Anonymous-- I am sorry that happened to your sister. One of the reasons we decided to do foster care is because during my time working with the courts, I saw some foster children who were being placed in homes were they were mistreated. When my husband and I talked about whether or not to do this, our main motivation was that we knew we could offer a safe home to a child who may or may not recieve that at some other foster /group home. I am happy to say that I became friends with some of the families in our foster classes and they seemed to be really nice people-- many of them were Christians as well. Sad to say, but I think part of the reason why the sexual abuse statistic is so high is due to foster homes like the one in which your sister was placed. I'll bet that the foster child who abused your sister was themselve also a victim of abuse-- so sad. It would be awful if that happened in my home to either the foster children I was entrusted with, or my biological children. I hope your sister found a safe person to talk to about what happened. Thanks for sharing your story, it's good to hear another perspective. BTW, I would love to hear more of your experiences with foster care, if you feel like sharing.