By Sandra Bost
May is Foster Care Awareness Month, a season that stays pinned to my heart year-round. My husband and I weren’t strangers to the world of foster care; we had spent three years as “Mom” and “Pop” to ten teenage boys in a group home. After a few years of much-needed rest though, our daughter convinced us to open our doors to foster care through a different route. So, following a 3 month foster-parent course, CPR and First Aid training, a home study, and enough paperwork to clear a small forest, we became licensed foster parents in Etowah County.
I still remember the butterflies when the social worker called to tell us about a sibling group in need of placement. She went on to explain that there were 3 sisters: ages 4, 5, and 9. We had only prepared ourselves to take 2 children, and had requested older children since most of our experience was with teenagers. However, as she was talking, we just knew that these girls were meant for us.
That first, “Yes,” was easy. We were far enough removed from the children’s home experience to forget the waves of emotion and sleepless nights. And, even though we were fresh from foster-care classes, we wore our rose-colored glasses as we rehearsed the “all they need is love” mantra. I don’t know if it is naiveté or a healthy dose of Grace, but it is akin to the phenomenon that allows birth mothers to forget the pain of childbirth and eagerly enter into the process again.
Our journey with “The Littles” as we affectionately referred to them, began the day after the call in May 2012. The four of us were so excited that we ran out on the porch when we heard the social worker pull into the driveway. In reflection, it was probably a little overwhelming to those sweet girls to be greeted so eagerly, but we couldn’t contain ourselves.
When I look back at pictures from that first day, my heart still aches at the sadness in their faces and distant look in their beautiful brown eyes. We noticed it then, but my heart can really see it now. We invited them in as we offered to take their grocery store bags holding all of their Earthly possessions. We showed them their room and all the Love we could manifest in those early moments. Our children are remarkable, so it didn’t take them long to make a crack in the enormous wall that the girls had built around their hearts for protection. Before the first night was over, we were gifted with smiles and a few soft giggles.
We weren’t to know it then, but we would only have them in our arms for 3 short months before the system would send them back to their family to work through the reunification protocols. However, as it turns out, you can fall in love forever with little ones somewhere between 1 and 90 days.
During those brief 90ish days we were able to create so many memories with “our” precious girls. One very vivid memory was the night God decided to give us a tangible lesson as we encountered the Panty Angel. Yes…panty! We had taken The Littles to the drive-in movies. In true “life with kids” fashion, as soon as the movie started, the girls asked to use the bathroom. I took Little and Middle to the potty only to discover that we had made it just a little bit late (in the worst way). Turns out, you can forget how to prepare for life with littles somewhere between 1 and 13 years. Standing at the sink rinsing out tiny panties, a sweet lady asked, “Can I help you?”
“Not unless you have some panties!” I quipped.
To which she replied, “I might.” She proceeded to her car to bring back her diaper bag with literal handfuls of panties…in 3 sizes! She pulled out a size 4 donned with Dora the Explorer, Middle’s favorite, and an outfit to boot! Psalm 91:11 came to life for us that night. “‘He will command His angels concerning you, to guard you in all your ways (ESV).”
When Psalm 91:11 promises that God (through His angels) will guard us in all of our ways, we often imagine a grand, celestial protection from physical harm. Yet, “all your ways” includes the messy ways, the exhausted ways, and the “I-forgot-to-pack-a-diaper-bag” ways. That night, a stranger with a spare outfit was a literal messenger of peace, proving that when we step out in obedience, God doesn’t just watch from a distance–He sends reinforcements for the very things we feel ill-equipped to handle.
If you have never encountered the Panty Angel, then maybe you should give foster care a try. It is so close to the heart of Jesus that He shows up in the most unexpected ways for those that trust Him with their, “Yes.”
His guardianship is as practical as it is powerful.
For more information on becoming a foster parent, contact https://dhr.alabama.gov/foster-care/ OR https://www.alabamachild.org/ . Over 6000 children are in need of a loving and stable home in Alabama today.
