Surprise/birthday party

No it wasn't a surprise birthday party.

Saturday night my husband and I agreed that we would go to the 2nd service on Sunday, so that way we wouldn't have to get up extra early (thank you, daylight saving time!). The middle school service that D goes to is only during the 1st hour which is why we try to always go to that service. So he had to come to the adult church with us. We knew he wouldn't be real thrilled but you gotta do what you gotta do!

In our church we have been working through the book of Amos, which talks a lot about social justice among other things. We just finished up the book last week. So the focus yesterday was on how to put it into practice, and they spotlighted a few opportunities on how to serve.

Well, the main focus was on....you got it, FOSTER CARE. Oh my goodness, as soon as they started talking about it I just started bawling my face off. D was sitting right next to me and patted me on the shoulder, I think he was thinking "What the heck is wrong with her???" They showed a video from a girl that went into foster care when she was 11 years old, and ended up being adopted with her sisters by a couple from our church. D was 11 when he went into foster care and he has said some of the same things she said. She said she didn't understand what was wrong with her biological family because she thought that was all normal and they were fine parents, and that she felt a lot of anger and resentment towards her foster parents (now her adoptive parents). But the part that really got me is that she said she eventually realized how lucky she was to be in a home with a mom and a dad, and how she started calling them mom and dad and was thankful for them. Also she said she had to move around from home to home before coming to her final home, and I hope that helped D to recognize how lucky he is that he has only had to move one time in foster care.

Our church has a goal of having a Christian home available for every single one of the 5,000+ kids in foster care in our state. So they are doing a big initiative and also trying to network current foster parents and respite providers all together to make this work. I can't even tell you how wonderful this is to me, and how incredibly exciting! It would have been really nice to have all this 2 years ago, but the knowledge that we will be able to help foster families is really exciting.

I have thought for a long time that the church needs to RISE UP and provide homes for these children! We try to work through the government to stop abortion, but where are we when the women who choose LIFE for their children fall on difficult times? Where are we when the shelters are full of kids because there is NO HOME that will take them???

DH and I were just talking the other day about how it will be kind of sad when we adopt these kids because we probably won't be open to foster care, at least for a while. Four kids is more than my husband initially wanted (though less than I thought I wanted - ha ha!). We both agreed that we would probably be open to it again once D leaves the house in 5 or 6 short years. Right now there is definitely no way we could take in more kids, we only have a small 3 bedroom house (and it is for real small). It's going to be a stretch just moving M in, whenever that happens. Once we get more room I could see it...I just can't see us affording some giant house though. I don't know how people with tons of kids do it!

D's friend E came with us to church, and I think it gave him a new respect for us as foster parents too. He said something later last night about D "owing us big time" for everything. :) Of course he doesn't owe us anything...I hope he is thankful for us but I know even that is a stretch. I was never that thankful for my parents until I was like 20 years old!
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So we had the C-Monster's birthday party yesterday. It went well. I don't know why I haven't learned this after throwing several birthday parties, but just some advice - always do cake before presents! I always do presents first for some reason, and then the kids never want to leave their new toys alone to go eat. So yesterday C didn't want to blow out candles or anything until his party was almost over, and then he decided he wanted to do it. People had already been eating the cake so there were maybe 2 or 3 pieces left. So I stuck some candles in there and we sang, and he did get to blow them out. Ha ha! He's so funny. He got some toys that he loved, one of his favorites was a basketball goal that hangs on a door. He played with it for like an hour yesterday and was able to make several goals by himself! :)

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D and his friend E have wanted to buy a tent for like a year now. They just never save up enough money to do it. D is terrible about money just burning a hole in his pocket and begging to be spent. So anyway, last night they decided they wanted to buy a tent. They scraped together $38 between them and E's brother. I took them to Wal-Mart, and charged them a $3 convenience fee (hey, I didn't feel like going to Wal-Mart at 8 p.m. after a full day of birthday party, cleaning, and being around a ton of people). They had to get it RIGHT NOW and didn't want to wait until a more convenient time for us.

So we got there, and their choices were a 5' X 6' tent that was 3' high and supposedly slept 2 people for $18.88 or a 7' X 9' one that was 4 feet high and slept 4 people for $34.97. D is 5'6" and his friend E isn't much shorter. They really wanted the bigger one but they only had $35 and with tax it was going to be $37.42! I toyed with the idea of giving back the convenience fee so they would have enough but I didn't feel like that was really appropriate. We really are trying to teach D about saving money, and also about natural consequences (i.e., if you don't have the money, you don't get it!). The boys were just going to get the tiny tent. I knew if they got that one we'd be coming back in a few weeks and doing this all over again so they could get the bigger tent.

I argued with myself and then I remembered that D had gotten a gift card to Wal-Mart for Christmas! I asked him if he had it and he said that it had $2.50 left on it and he had left it at home! Aaarrrgghhh! He was really frustrated and so was I! So I told him we could go back to the house and get it, and come back and get the big tent.

Oh man he was so excited! He picked me up and spun me around and seriously squeezed the guts out of me. He really appreciated that I did that for him and I was really glad that he was able to get the big tent. So he and E slept outside in their new tent last night. The low was like 38 degrees which isn't too bad, but cold enough that I wouldn't have wanted to be out there!

This is the end of the longest blog ever. :)

Comments

  1. I am excited for your family. Even if every foster family adopts God will keep providing foster families. Especially if the churches get involved.

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  2. As you know I'm excited out of my mind about what is going on at church too :) I think it's cute about D. It sounds like maybe he is starting to realize he needs to save his money! That would be a positive improvement for him. Something to cheer about :)

    ReplyDelete

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