3 More Sleeps

We have a big update that we have been keeping private for awhile until we could tell the boys the news.

We only have three more sleeps with Champ in our home before he will move to live with his older “bro bro” and an amazing woman who will become his new foster mom. My heart feels so conflicted. I am SO thrilled for this precious boy to be with his brother each day (he is soo excited), but we will certainly miss him here.

While we have had our share of difficult moments and we will definitely plan to have more of an age gap with future placements, we would NOT trade the past four months for anything. We have all learned a lot and have grown in many ways. Tears come to my eyes and my throat gets a big lump in it when I think about our home without Champ.

So far all of the boys seem to be handling this news well. We determined with the other foster parent and agency/case manager to tell all the kids about this change over the weekend, so the news is very fresh for them. Because the concept of time is hard at their age, we decided it would be best to only give the boys a one week heads up, so the transition time was not too long and in hopes to minimize confusion for Champ.

The boys are all slowly digesting the news. It has come out in their conversations and even their prayers. Tonight E said to Champ, “Can I give you a big hug before you move away?” They hugged each other tightly, then E said “I hope we can be neighbors in Heaven.”

Champ asked Jesus to be his Savior one night when I was putting him to bed several months ago and we have seen the Holy Spirit at work in his life. It’s amazing to see how he loves to pray and worship God. What a beautiful, incredible thing to know he is our brother in Christ and we will someday spend forever together!

But, for now, we will soak in these last few nights together.

I’m going to try to pre-emptively answer some questions you guys might have below. Feel free to ask any other questions in the comments and if I can answer, I absolutely will!

Will we see Champ again?

Yes, we will provide respite to his new foster mom! We can’t wait for a sleepover already planned in a couple weeks.

Will you stay in touch with his mom?

Yes, I hope to stay connected with his mom. We actually texted back and forth about that this weekend.

Why weren’t the brothers together before?

They always try to keep siblings in foster care together, but it’s not always possible. Unfortunately, at this stage in our lives, our capacity is to only love and serve one extra kiddo at a time. We have always been up front about this with the agency, but until now they could not find a long-term placement for both kids. It’s more complex with way twists and turns than I feel like I should share (for privacy reasons), but I will say that if YOU feel that you could take in sibling sets or older kiddos, there is a HUGE need for those homes. We praise God the boys can now be together and for the willingness of his older brother’s foster mom to say yes to this.

Will we continue doing foster care?

Of course! As Nick said to E and A last night, “We will keep doing foster care, until God tells us not to.” We will likely take a break and then only do respite care for awhile, especially considering that I started a new job/career in recruiting just this week. (I’m now working with Nick! – that probably deserves its own blog post). We will definitely keep praying and seeking God’s direction for what’s next.

Psalm 28:7 (ESV) “The Lord is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him.”