I know people mean well, but good intentions are not necessarily an indicator of right actions. We've been asked some questions over the years that either leave us smiling or scratching our heads. These questions could be considered misguided or uninformed, perhaps the thoughts of people who don’t know any better, but when strangers ask [...]
Tag: foster care
Creating a Healthy Adoption Culture in Your Church
About a minute into the greatest sermon ever preached Jesus tells us that we are the light of the world. I know, big responsibility is placed on us in that moment. I think that a way for our churches to be the light of the world is by embracing the ministry of adoption and foster [...]
Fostering Hope
We were recently asked to write about our family for Chatter at Irving Bible Church. Chatter is a monthly publication of the church that is available in print and online. The article was published today so we thought we'd share it here. Thank you for taking the time to read it. Foster care was never [...]
Why Do You Do It?
Do you remember Black Hawk Down? It's the story a helicopter shot down over Mogadishu, Somalia about 20 years ago. One of my favorite scenes is near the end of the movie when Eric Bana's character Hoot shares the following: When I go home people'll ask me, "Hey Hoot, why do you do it man? [...]
Tapestry Conference 2013
We are honored to be presenting at the Tapestry conference again this year. We have been asked to talk about the importance of birth families to foster and adoptive kids. Here is the summary of our session: Adopted and foster children share a deeply personal connection with their birth families regardless of the circumstances of [...]
Keep the Faith
Doubt is a terrible thing. I don't like feeling unsure of myself. I don't do well with it, I don't do well with it at all. It turns out that I like things being out of control even less. I have never thought of myself as someone with control issues. OK, I'll admit to some [...]
WOW! That’s a lot of Kids
One of the things about having a family as large as ours is that everywhere we go people will comment about our six kids. Usually it's something innocent like, "You must have your hands full" or "WOW! That's a lot of kids." And sometimes we have those less than nice interactions like "What's wrong with [...]
Tell Me a Story
One of my favorite things we do as a family is eat dinner together every night. And by together I mean everyone (including babies) sitting around the table sharing food and each other's company. There was a time when we would sit on the couch and the kids would "picnic" on the floor while watching [...]
A Change of Plans
Often people will ask me when I knew I wanted to be a foster parent. They are usually quite surprised when I respond with...never! In fact, if you had asked me 10 years ago if I could/would ever be a foster parent I would have told you, "NO WAY!" I would get too attached. Adoption [...]
Adopt(Ed)
Here is our presentation from last year's Tapestry conference. Adopt(Ed)