On Being a Foster Parent

Foster Parenting

I have been a foster parent off and on in my adult life to more than 50 children. In the beginning, 20 years ago in Oklahoma, foster parents weren't allowed to adopt, and adoptive parents weren't allowed to foster. All this has changed, very much for the better, in fact, now foster parents are actually the first people considered when a child has become free for adoption. Our family has adopted two of our foster children, and will adopt our third hopefully by the end of the year.

Foster parenting is usually very interesting to people, and they will often ask me questions at any kind of gathering we are at. I love to talk about it, and probably give much more information than people are looking for! I am a Christian, and am usually around other Christian people, and often, their viewpoint will kind of surprise me.

I became a foster parent for two reasons. The first is that I love children, and I dearly love being a mother. To me, there is almost nothing more satisfying on earth, than caring for a little child. I also enjoy mentoring the parents of my foster children - most of the time. I have had to deal with some real dozzies, but it only makes life more interesting.

My second reason for fostering is my Christian faith. James 1:27 in the Bible tells us that "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world."

Now that is the King James Version of this scripture, and many of the people I associate with are what some people call KJV onlyers, they will only read that one version, and think everything else is defiled.

I am of a different mind, and I believe that reading ONLY that one translation, with its old English, can sometimes give you a misguided view of what is really being said.