Why Foster Care?

On a daily basis I am asked an abundance of questions about why we are choosing to do foster care, with a good amount of questions (and remarks) that follow close behind.
I love answering these questions and while coming home from a good friends wedding last week, all the questions were playing over and over in my mind and I started wondering how many people out there really want to know the answers, but don't want to ask.
So I've decided I would compile a list of the questions and answers here.

Q: What "kind" of kids will you get?
A: Our demographic for our license is going to be age 0-5, boy or girl, willing to take a sibling group of up to three kids. Other than that we will be getting neglected and abused children who desperately need to know that they are worthy of love and a good home. They are worth it. They aren't disposable like they've grown up thinking. They will be loved. And hopefully their bio parents will learn the same lesson.

Q: Do they see their "real" mom and dad?
A: This is decided on a case-by-case basis. But most of the time, the answer is yes. If they are adopted, then we will be have the choice to allow their relationship with their bios to continue.

Q: Why foster care?
A: Here are some statistics for you. 1) In the state of Texas, a child is abused or neglected every 8 minutes. 2) There are 6,875,255 children in the state of Texas, and of those there are approximately 28,000 children in foster care at any given moment. And there are only a little more than 3,000 foster homes. Do that math. In case you don't want to take the time those stats mean that approximately 1 out of every 245 children is in care.
The statistics aren't the only reason we chose this path. God commands us to care for the widowed and the orphaned. We are opening our home to the children that need us permanently, as well as the kids who only need us for a little while.

Q: Why don't you use private adoption? It's so much easier that way.
A: There are SO many people who want to privately adopt and I think that it is absolutely wonderful that people who can't care for their babies are willing to put them up for adoption to be taken into loving homes. And it is absolutely fantastic that people want to adopt those precious little babies. But for us, that isn't the right path. I look at the statistics, and wonder to myself on a daily basis what will happen to the kids who *don't* get adopted out of foster care. And it breaks.my.heart.
So many children need love. Not just the ones coming straight from the womb.

Q: Don't you know you're going to get your heart broken?
A: Yes. I do know that we are setting ourselves up to fall in love with children just to have them taken from our home. Foster care is the business of heart break. But isn't it better to love and to have lost than never to have loved at all? And aren't these kids worthy of feeling love?

Q: What about Rylie? Does she understand?
A: She understands what we have told her. Which is that sometimes some mommies and daddies don't know how to be good mommies and daddies and they need help learning how to take care of their babies (and kids). She's so open, and keeps leaving toys in our back room "so the new kids can play with it". And she can't wait to share her mommy and daddy with the new kids.

Q: How is Rylie going to take it when the kids leave?
A: If they leave, then I'm sure she will miss them. They will be her siblings while they are with us. We will love them, and it will feel like part of our family is gone when they leave. But isn't it better to teach her compassion and love than the hold this experience back just because she might get hurt? Our jobs as parents is to teach her to be a productive member of society. It's also our job to teach her to be kind, compassionate, loving, and Godly. We feel as though this experience will only help mold her into the adult we hope she will grow to be.

And I'm sure there are a ton more that I can't think of right now.
For us, our answer is in Psalm 82:3-4.
"3. Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. 4. Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked."