As Send Relief has guided foster and adoptive families through Family Advocacy Ministry training over the last year, testimonies of hope and community care are beginning to spring up across the country.
Here are some impacts of your giving to vulnerable children projects through Send Relief in 2022:
The Wostbrock Family
“We have been involved in coordinating wrap-around care at our church and serving on wrap-around teams for the last several years, and we have seen so many difficult situations that seemed hopeless or hard—but for every tough situation, God met these families with hope and a solution. Many times, that solution was their designated care community. Seeing God’s faithfulness again and again, we’ve decided to become foster parents ourselves!”
The McBride Family
God blessed Lorie McBride with lifelong friends when He gave her a community at church that wrapped around her as she stepped into the new journey of fostering children. In Lorie’s words, “They loved us, prayed for us and offered practical support by babysitting and taking my kids on adventures! I may have quit fostering without their help and, if I had, I would never have been able to adopt my lovely Natalie!”
The Dufur Family
After fostering children for six years, Jessica and Steven Dufur felt the nudge from the Holy Spirit to step into receiving “hard-to-place” teenagers. According to them, taking this step would have been “undeniably impossible” without the support of the wrap-around team coordinated by their church. The team’s prayers, encouragement, meals and special treats for all of their children have given them the sustained support they needed to lean in and continue to say yes in life’s harder moments.
The Piggot Family
It started simply enough for the Piggots: deliver one meal per month to a foster family in their church.
Then God stirred their hearts to welcome a foster child of their own into their home.
“We began serving a family who fostered multiple children. We cooked meals for them, gave homework assistance and babysat. This time serving others opened our hearts to the possibility of fostering ourselves and eventually led to us adopting our youngest son.”
The Branham Family
Heather and Brandon did the unthinkable when they said “yes” to a sibling set of four kids through their local foster care system.
According to Heather, “We know and believe that when God calls us to something, He will always provide.” And provide He did.
Heather’s family was quickly flooded with support from their church family, who offered wrap-around care through meals, prayers, respite, emergency help and more. “Not only did our care community get us through some difficult months of transition, but our children had a front-row seat to see Christ’s love in action.”
The Nix Family
“My church has demonstrated God’s unwavering love for me and my family. In our most dire times, their wrap-around team showed up in ways that only God would. As a foster parent struggling through the pandemic, I thought, ‘How can I survive in such an uncertain time?’ I’m forever grateful for this community which provided me with a level of security and constantly reminded me of God’s unconditional love.”
Foster families like these who are supported intentionally through a Family Advocacy Ministry often share that they gain time and bandwidth to continue saying yes to kids from hard places—what better example is there of the Lord at work?
If you’re interested in learning more through a one-on-one FAM Coach call, sign up today to secure your spot!
Published May 17, 2023