Sometimes life throws you crazy circumstances that require
prayer and a heavy dosage of faith to get through. Other times, God throws you
a crazy vision of the future, and you need only wait for the circumstances to
match. This past year, Becca and I have experienced primarily the first side of
that coin. This week, we experienced the opposite: an opportunity that was an
answer to prayer, the fruition of a desire we have had since we began life
together almost three years ago.
Next week, we will be taking on the responsibility and joy
of fostering eight little girls. When the MTC leadership approached us about
this last Saturday, our first and immediate response was total excitement. For
the last couple of years, we have known that we are called to “parenthood”
beyond the beginning of our own biological family. Until this week, we didn’t
know if that meant adoption, foster care in the US, or something else entirely.
Now we know. It means living as “house mom and dad” for Alicia, Cristel,
Galilea, Luz, Virginia, Mileni, Joanna, and Regina. In the beginning of
February, we will move into a room at the children’s home to be close to the
girls. It’s in this space that we will be doing our best to create a home
environment with them – waking them up and putting them to sleep, reading them
stories, putting them in time out (it’s bound to happen), baking, crying, and
laughing together.
Beyond our excitement for taking on the joys, struggles, and
daily needs of these girls, we are encouraged about what it means for the
future of the children’s home and MTC. The idea is that the next 6-12 months
with these girls will be a sort of “trial”, to see what transitioning the
entire children’s home into family-style housing would look like. We are still
quite a ways from that, but we are confident that this will be the start of
something great.
While we are bolstered by our excitement and the fact that
it’s actually an answer to prayer, this new role will certainly have its own
set of challenges and questions. Please join us in prayer as we jump into this
with both feet – and if you have any parenting advice, feel free to share. :)
We'll try to share updates, joys, and prayer requests as we step into this new role together.
Love,
Brooklin & Becca
