Miracle Number 1

"May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world" (Gal 6:18).

One thing that I’ve learned about foster care is that it makes you feel inherently needy. First it isolates you from others in certain ways (friends don’t understand what you’re going through, spouses have to divide and conquer by taking different kids to different events, people think you’re crazy etc.). But on top of that, it can stretch your finances. In foster care, they give you a monthly stipend, which is normally enough to cover most expenses, but at times, big purchases become necessary, such as a new car or a larger house, and it’s been in this neediness that we’ve been able to really see God’s provision in a way we’ve never witnessed before.

When we first decided to start fostering, we were continually going back and forth on the age of the child we might accept, or if we should even accept two! But we knew we were not ready emotionally or even physically to accept any over the age of eight. We knew we wanted to be fully engaged emotionally with the older children, but with us having a toddler of our own, a lot of time goes in to just monitoring her actions. So we finally decided that we would accept one child between the ages of 0-5yrs. While going through the training, our hearts broke more and more. Every Sunday at church a song would play talking about how God is the Father to the Fatherless. How I desperately wanted to take in as many children and tell them of this TRUTH (Sean says he was a lot less sure he wanted to take in as many as possible)! 

But we just physically couldn't. Because of the legalities concerning foster care, one child could share Abby's room, and another little baby could sleep in our room (we had one other room on a different level, but kids under 5 can’t stay on another level). On top of that, our car couldn't fit three kids in the back, it could only barely squeeze two with car seats. My heart continued to break because of this. But God had been teaching me a lot. Sean and I started praying. If God wanted us to have two more kids then He would just have to provide us with a van. But vans are expensive and we didn’t have the money. He would have to do nothing short of a miracle for that to happen.

Even if we could save anything, it would have taken us probably two years to get the money. But I didn't know what my God had in store for us. One week before we were licensed, I opened our door to find a manila envelope tucked underneath our doormat. I picked it up and tossed it on the couch (we were on our way to meet Daddy at his truck). The envelope would have to wait. When we got back, I opened the package and I started shaking. Honestly, I was almost scared, because there was $5,000.00 in cash and a note in there! The note read, "God hears you." I started sobbing. Could God truly have heard our cry? Why was I in such disbelief? My whole life God has shown Himself to be nothing short of AWESOME. But in that moment, God had shown His faithfulness and provision.

God brought us to a place that we have challenged Him to "throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it" (Mal 3:10). Well, we "tested" (3:10) Him in it and He has done just that. He has poured an abundance of blessing on us. "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,' says the Lord Almighty, 'and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of Heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it." Malachai 3:10

Thank you for this “Mom Van” I swore I’d never drive.