Valuing the Vulnerable

This world offers a lot of opportunities to test our very nature. The entire globe has gone through a major exam by asking us to lay down our rights, to value the vulnerable among us by staying at home and taking precautions. The government has said, and we have agreed, that those who are most at risk for Covid-19 have to be protected and we have sheltered in place. We wear masks. We wash our hands. We stay at home. We order our groceries and pick them up. We change our habits for those who are vulnerable. It just makes sense, doesn't it?

We protect those who are weaker among us.

This idea of "valuing the vulnerable" is not strange to one group of people. Foster Parents have been crying out for the most helpless among us for many years. They advocate for those that can't advocate for themselves...children.  They have taken on the challenge of walking beside a fearful child, of swimming in the deep waters of trauma, of providing a safe shelter for those who are at risk.
They have bought bunkbeds and minivans to keep siblings together.
They have attended court hearings and parent-teacher conferences to help a child succeed.
They have scaled down their active social life while a child regulates to safety.
They have asked other children and family members to move over and make room.
They have learned new songs and made new foods.
They have sat at the ball field on hard benches and cheered loudly for their new little slugger.
They have advocated for the rights of this helpless, vulnerable child while at the same time supporting the efforts of the birth family.

They have sacrificed.

Some might find it difficult to share the most intimate of spaces belonging to them. Namely, their home.

It might be too much to have to set another plate at the table, add another load of laundry, make room for another toothbrush at the bathroom sink.

Or if the physical adjustments don't offer a challenge, what about the emotional upheaval or the demand on your energy?  Would it pass our own level of benevolence to give from the well that sometimes already feels deplete and dry? To have to extend that dipper way down deep and keep dipping day after day might be too much of a challenge for many of us. And yet foster parents dig deeper into this well and somehow draw out refreshing, life-giving water.

To somehow offer words of appreciation is hard to do. How do we express the depth of gratitude for what foster parents willingly take on? How do we say thank you enough to those who have gone against the grain of this selfie-filled world and said no to an easier,  more comfort-filled life and a resounding yes to possible tears and meltdowns and deep rooted hurts? When fully understanding the depth of what they are offering- what they willingly lay down for another, words fall terribly short and we struggle to adequately say thank you with the sincerity it deserves.

Childhelp is blessed to serve these saints of our time. We are so grateful to walk beside them and at times hold their hands while they are grasping the fingers of a little one.
Foster parents, we are indebted to you and offer our most heart-felt thanks during this month of appreciation.

Every wound healed. Every child, a home.