What could happen if we fostered kids in our community?

Written by Julie Walton

This is the central question, isn’t it?  The question of what could happen if we open our home to kids seems to have limitless answers of what could go wrong. With almost no exceptions, every single person I’ve ever met who has considered fostering has a pretty extensive list of fears.  The damage that could occur to their own hearts or to their children or home.  

We don’t want to sugarcoat that.  Those are real risks.  Real stories.  Real possibilities.  But we wonder if we could ask you today to consider a different side of what “could” be?  

When I was a kid, I loved when we visited my extended family and cousins.  To me this meant one primary thing: an opportunity to perform.  My cousins and I would work for hours on some elaborate play, scrounging around in my grandma’s closet for “costumes” and would emerge breathlessly into the living room, where our family was waiting to see our show.  I don’t remember a single song we wrote or play we imagined, but I do remember this: my uncles and aunts, my parents, and my dear grandma would watch us endlessly, laughing and cheering us on.  My uncle would always find one example of my extraordinary “talent” to praise and I loved it.  

What if we could think of foster care in a similar way?  That by choosing to embrace kids enduring difficult circumstances in our city, we are becoming a part of the audience of their lives.  We could choose to say to our cities and communities that they matter to us so much that their kids are worth watching, enjoying, celebrating and cheering on.  

I didn’t necessarily “need” this affirmation as much as many kids in foster care desperately do, yet these memories are indelibly marked in my mind’s memory.  What if we could give this to kids in our communities? 

And what if by seeing them just as kids, we enabled them to reclaim the pieces of their childhood that trauma is desperately trying to erase?  

What if by enjoying them and celebrating them, we fan into flame the very gift of God He deposited there? What if this is how our cities and neighborhoods are won?  What if this is how huge injustices are ceased? 

I had a dear friend ask me on Sunday how to help with trafficking.  I understand her puzzlement.  With something as large and awful as human beings selling other human beings for their own nefarious gain, it sure seems like there ought to be something tangible to do. 

I told her what I’ll tell you.  If you want to see trafficking shift…truly, truly shift…then invest in foster kids in your community.  Make sure they know that they are seen and known and loved.  Make sure that they know that they are not forgotten.  Make sure that the memories of their childhood, even those stained and bruised by trauma include being caught by a community who would not let them go. That when they remember the pain of whatever circumstances pushed them into foster care, they also remember a set of adults that fought for them and beside them.  

When we do this, friends, we ensure that the whispers of a trafficker fall on deaf ears.  We ensure that a kid knows who he is so he isn’t waiting for someone else to fill in those blanks.  We ensure that the first time a little girl hears that she is beautiful and strong, she hears it from a safe adult.  Someone who has her best in mind.  

This is a winnable fight, friends. 

If you’d like tangible ways to invest in your community today, drop us a note.  We’d love to connect you to ways to serve foster kids in your very own community. 

And know that we are cheering you on.  

Indeed, we are ‘waiting in the living room’ for you and your brilliant contribution to this whole story of redeeming kids to emerge.  

We can’t wait to hear it. 

We’re in this together.