I Want to Protect My Children

I fiercely protect my children. The decision to become a foster parent, the decision to say yes to each child since, has always weighed the best interests of our forever children. Our responsibility to them is primary—protecting and prioritizing them must come first.

But along with considering the “risks” of bringing foster children into our home, we’ve considered the “risks” of not. I want to protect my children from heartbreak and from danger and from difficulty. But really, I want to protect them from so much more.

I want to protect them from going through life thinking the world is about them. From the lie that following Jesus is always easy or that God is some magic genie who exists to serve our wishes. From the illusion that everyone lives the same charmed lives that they do. I want to protect them from a selfish, wasted life.

My dreams for my kids are bigger and better than health and wealth and happiness. I dream that my kids will love and live for Jesus above all, that they’ll follow wherever He calls. I dream that they will live radically and love selflessly and serve sacrificially. And I know, my dreaming and my training can’t do this in their hearts—only God can do that—but I think that this foster-sibling life is good training ground for these dreams.