An Evening To Remember

Clint and I have been given this amazing privilege of ministering not only to our foster sons but also to their parents.

We took the foster care classes with the intent to adopt only. But God in His ways, changed us once again and we began seeing the great potential of serving families. Not only children but whole families.

I call the boys' mom once or twice every week. I call her so she can talk with LM but in reality he says only a few words "Hi Mommy." "Love you Mommy." "Bye Mommy." And sometimes, he won't talk at all but after she talks with him, she talks to me. We often talk 20-30 minutes. Sometimes more. It's an opportunity to love on her. To care about her. To hear her.

I am often tired and not really in the mood to call her quite honestly but I open my arms and ask the Lord to love through me and He does it. Every single time.

The Lord has given us such a love for D (their mom) and B (their Dad).

Clint and I really want to be a support to them. We recently gave them our phone numbers because we realized that in order to truly support them, we need to be reachable. For awhile, I kept a tight boundary around that and only called D (with *67 to block our phone number) but as we've gotten to know them, we've sensed the Lord calling us to remove some of those boundaries. Not all but some of them.

God has given us such a strong desire to be involved in their lives and to mentor them and so I call D up and asked her if they would like to go out to eat with us.

I told her it would be our treat and asked her where they wanted to go. She had trouble giving me an answer and so I asked would you like Applebees or Shlotski's. "Whoa your talking about expensive places!" she responded. I told her we can't do this all the time but this was a special night and we wanted to take them out and treat them. I again asked her, what sounds good?

A little sheepishly she said, well B and I would love some steak!

"Oh D, we will get you some steak!"

And tonight we took them out to Outback Steakhouse.

As we looked over the menu B said, "I've never eatin' in a place like this before."

It was an absolute blessing watching them enjoy their food! Talking with them about their boys. Sharing with them how much we want to support them and how we truly love them. Celebrating their victories thus far and encouraging them to keep going.

They were so thankful. We were so very blessed. Thank You Jesus!

"Feed the hungry, and help those in trouble. Then your light will shine out from the darkness and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon.....Some of you will rebuild the deserted ruins of your cities. Then you will be known as a rebuilder of walls and a restorer of homes."
Isaiah 58:11, 12