Simplicity in Sharing

One Sunday evening, one of my foster kids was upset in his room, because quite frankly it is hard to live a life away from your blood family and as much as your other family opens up their lives, hearts, and home to you, it is never quite the same as time spent with your real mama. I encouraged my husband to go down and comfort him, sometimes boys just need a father figure to show them it is ok to hurt and be upset. 

As my husband left the room, one of my daughters looked up at me and said, “Mama, why do other kids, who did not come out of your belly live with us?” 

Amazed and honestly a bit overwhelmed with her question, I answered, “Well that is a big questions with a lot of different answers, but what I will tell you tonight is I think the most important answer. Mommy and Daddy open up our homes to others who do not have another place to go, because we believe that when we help others, we are helping Jesus.”

She looked at me and said, “but now we are out of rooms in our house, where do the rest of the kids go, to Uncle Eli?” I laughed at this, seeing her innocent recognition that we are not alone in this journey, their are others who create spaces in their lives and their homes for those who do not have a place to call their home. We aren’t called to live this life on our own and when we need help, there are people around us, who we can lean on. 

This conversation touched my heart, to see that our little girl has witnessed the simplicity of the gospel. We have more, we share and we give away. Simplicity has been a word that I have struggled to always see manifest in my life as a Christian in the western world. My kids have been on more flights by the age of 6 then I was on at the age of 15 and I believe if I got rid of half of their toys, it would take them a week to notice they were missing. 

How can we live a simple life in the materialistic western society in which we live? For me, the answer lies in the manifestation of the Gospel in our lives. There is simplicity in reading and understanding the gospel and believing that, that same power that rose Jesus from the dead lives with in you and he gives us the strength to open up our homes, share our resources, and to walk in the obedience in which he called us to today. 

Lessons of Love

 It was 3 pm on Wednesday, February 13th, 2019, when I ventured out to the neighborhood park with my two girls who were both under the age of two at the time. We were interrupted by a phone call from my husband, who asked what I thought about opening up our house to a 12 year old boy who arrived in Switzerland completely alone. 

Shocked with the entire situation, I told him I needed to think about it. It took us both a total of 5 minutes to think and say a quick prayer, to realize, our hearts were saying…Yes. At the time, we were living in a three bedroom apartment and decided to move our 6 month old baby into our almost two year old girls room to make the arrangements work. 

What surprised me most about this process was how quick everything went. The officials from Social Services came on Wednesday evening to talk with us and see our home and space where the 12 year old boy would be staying and told us within the same meeting, that we can pick him up tomorrow, February 14th, from the hospital. We went from a family of 4 to a foster family of 5 within 24 hours.

February 14th, 2019 otherwise known as Valentines Day, looked a bit different for us that year than our usual fondue date night or bouquet of flowers and box of chocolate. It was a strong, deep, and sentimental aha moment, where I started to realize what love really is. 

I would love to write that I said yes to this 12 year old boy, simply because I loved him or children for that matter. I wish I could say that we said yes because we had the perfect house, hearts and were mature to handle what comes with fostering and raising teenagers. For goodness sake, I myself was one less than a decade before. I wish I could even say that I said yes because I wanted to make the world a better place, but none of these reasons were the reasons why I said yes.

I said yes because of love. The love that I have for God, his work, and his kingdom here on earth. He has given me so much, from his Son who is the perfect example of love in action to a promise of eternal life with Him to even His Spirit who guides and helps me with all the gifts that he freely bestows upon me. 

My yes was a risk, it was a step into unseen, unknown territory, where I knew only God could show up and provide in the areas where I​ would fall short. This yes was a yes that changed the course of my children’s, my husband’s and my life, for the better. Of course, we gave our foster son a home and a family, but what he has given back to us is so much more. 

He has taught my children to share some of the most intimate parts of their lives with others, their parents, their home, even at times their toys. He has shown me the darkness in the world, that circumstances could be so bad that it is better to send a 12 year old to a foreign country alone in the hopes for a new and better life. He has brought balance into our home and a gentle way in which he deals with his little siblings. 

Only God can take the dark circumstances that this world gives and turn them into something good, so so good. 

Love is so many things, but selfish is what it is not. Love is self-sacrifice, risk, vulnerability, and that valentines day in 2019, taught me a deep and profound lesson, not only in fostering and in my faith, but as well within my marriage and those relationships that are nearest and dearest. Lose control a little, take a risk that somehow does not add up or make sense, you never know how many blessings will follow that choice.