http://jasonjohnsonblog.com/blog/foster-care-what-i-fear-most-for-my-own-kids#.VbzJ8fmv8Qp=
"I used to be concerned about the effect bringing a foster child into our family would have on our kids. Would it take away from the attention they deserve from us? Would it interrupt their routines? Would they resent us for it?
Now, after the fact, I'm more concerned about the effect NOT bringing a
foster child into our home would have had on our kids. It has changed
them, for the better, and I'm convinced they will never be the same as a
result of it" From the Jason Johnson Blog.
From Oconee County Families:
Jeb-10 years old-
Why People Should Foster Parent
One good reason to foster parent is think about how they feel. The police come to their house and take them...then now would you rather them go to a safe home like yours or to a group home.
Next, I think its kinda fun when DSS calls to say, "Will you take a 4 year old boy?" I have all these questions running through my head...I wonder what he will look like? How long will he stay with us?
Another thing...What are you afraid of? Their sweet, and cute, just like your kids. It is highly unlikely for them to be bad. We've had over 13 cases and one child out of 13 has been bad.They don't mess up your house, like I said they're practically like your kid.
Oh, and one last thing....when you start doubting yourself, just say...I'm going to get rewarded for this in heaven. Jesus Christ is looking over me. I can do this.
P.S. Please foster parent. Jeb
Saturday, August 1, 2015
Busyness, Obedience and the Perfect Time to Foster or Adopt
http://jasonjohnsonblog.com/blog/busyness-obedience-perfect-time-foster-adopt
I've found something to be true in me at times, and the more I talk with others, equally true in them as well. It's this idea that my busyness is something to brag about, as if it were a badge of honor to be worn so others can see how important, productive and crucial I am to the world around me. "How have things been going?", I'm often asked. "Man, it's been crazy busy lately.", I often reply.
Let
me end with this: If you're someone who keeps wondering about it,
talking about it and praying about it then you're probably someone that
just needs to do it...and most likely somebody that would be great at
it. And I understand this post may not be written to your particular
circumstances right now. No book, blog or article ever can address the
uniquenesses of everyone's situations. It is, however, written
to those who are right now, or who have ever been guilty of,
rationalizing, justifying and delaying obedience for the sake of their
own personal comfort and convenience.
Really, it's written to myself, the chief of all rationalizers and delayers.
But maybe also it's written to you. Only you know.
I've found something to be true in me at times, and the more I talk with others, equally true in them as well. It's this idea that my busyness is something to brag about, as if it were a badge of honor to be worn so others can see how important, productive and crucial I am to the world around me. "How have things been going?", I'm often asked. "Man, it's been crazy busy lately.", I often reply.
Not
only do I, and perhaps even you, sometimes tout our busyness around
like a trophy, we also use it as a scapegoat. It's not me, we say, it's
my busyness that is preventing me from really engaging my neighbors,
pursuing my dreams, plugging into my church or really giving myself over
to worthwhile things I'm passionate about - things we would most
certainly do if life just weren't so crazy busy all the time.
But there's also times when, if we're honest, our problem is not that we're busy; it's that we're busy with things that don't really matter. It's not the responsibilities in front of us that take away from other things. It's actually the opposite. It's choosing other things - lesser things - that take away from the greater opportunities before us. I don't believe being busy is a problem; I believe being busy with the wrong things is. I don't know about you but I want to lay my head down every night exhausted, not because I spent my energy that day on things that don't matter, but because I spent myself on things that do. The first is exhausting and unfulfilling. The second is just as exhausting but far more satisfying.
This is not to disregard the very real and legitimate things you need to consider before fostering or adopting; things like the health of your marriage, your kids, your finances and your own emotional capacity to bear the weight of broken stories and love the children who come from them. These must be taken into account when considering the best timing to foster or adopt. However, I find for most people it's an issue of time, of busyness and of margin. "We want to foster or adopt," many say, "but life is just so busy right now." Again, sometimes this is valid, but sometimes it's a smokescreen. I'm not one to tell you what it is for you right now - only you, through an honest examination of your own heart, can really determine that. However, I am suggesting you take the time to ask yourself the hard and pressing questions and consider that in the grand scheme of things, there's never really a perfect time to foster or adopt; just a lot of opportunities to say yes despite the many reasons you may have to say no. I suppose faith, on some level, can be defined in that way - choosing to say yes despite all the no's around you.
Now, the challenge. Kids in crisis can't afford to wait until it's most convenient for you to care for them. They don't have that luxury. They need you to stop rationalizing what you know God is calling you to do - and just do it. Your "no" is a lot more difficult on them than your "yes" will ever be on you. Perhaps these kids needs your family as much as your family needs these kids. One is given comfort and security for likely the first time in their life while the other is freed from comfort and security, and as a result, actually finds life. Jesus Himself said, "Whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it." (Matthew 16:25) In perhaps one of the most counterintuitive and countercultural statements He ever made, we find what life is all about - losing ourselves for the sake of someone else's gain. Hard? Yes. Worth it? Absolutely. What you stand to lose pales in comparison to what everyone, including yourself, stands to gain. There's never really a perfect time to foster or adopt; just a lot of opportunities to say yes to losing yourself despite the many reasons you have to say no.
The Right Kind of Busy
Don't get me wrong, there are seasons of life that are nothing short of chaotic and hectic. We've got a lot on our plates and most if not all of it is important - responsibilities we can't neglect and things that just have to get done. These are very real and legitimate places that people frequently find themselves. Busyness is not a trophy for them, it's actually a ball-and-chain.But there's also times when, if we're honest, our problem is not that we're busy; it's that we're busy with things that don't really matter. It's not the responsibilities in front of us that take away from other things. It's actually the opposite. It's choosing other things - lesser things - that take away from the greater opportunities before us. I don't believe being busy is a problem; I believe being busy with the wrong things is. I don't know about you but I want to lay my head down every night exhausted, not because I spent my energy that day on things that don't matter, but because I spent myself on things that do. The first is exhausting and unfulfilling. The second is just as exhausting but far more satisfying.
Choosing Yes
It's possible that the perfect season of life you are waiting on before fostering or adopting will never come. When will the crazy busy of life really slow down enough for you to then make it crazy and busy all over again by fostering or adopting? Have you considered that perhaps the parameters you have set to define when you're "ready" may be too narrow? What if they leave no space for you to actually ever feel "ready"? What if you're more ready now than you realize?This is not to disregard the very real and legitimate things you need to consider before fostering or adopting; things like the health of your marriage, your kids, your finances and your own emotional capacity to bear the weight of broken stories and love the children who come from them. These must be taken into account when considering the best timing to foster or adopt. However, I find for most people it's an issue of time, of busyness and of margin. "We want to foster or adopt," many say, "but life is just so busy right now." Again, sometimes this is valid, but sometimes it's a smokescreen. I'm not one to tell you what it is for you right now - only you, through an honest examination of your own heart, can really determine that. However, I am suggesting you take the time to ask yourself the hard and pressing questions and consider that in the grand scheme of things, there's never really a perfect time to foster or adopt; just a lot of opportunities to say yes despite the many reasons you may have to say no. I suppose faith, on some level, can be defined in that way - choosing to say yes despite all the no's around you.
Let me encourage you, then challenge you
First, the encouragement. Your life is probably crazy busy. But you are far more brave than you realize to say yes despite all the reasons you have to say no, and you are capable of handling far more than you could ever possibly imagine - even if it doesn't feel like it right now. The good news is that Jesus does not call you to control everything in the foster care or adoption process, nor does He expect you to. He actually wants you to be okay with the fact that you can't. Your success in this is not measured by your capacity to keep everything in order; it's determined by your ability to trust that even in the chaos Jesus is beautiful - and even in the mess, so is what you are doing by loving these kids the way that you are. He doesn't expect you to understand it all now; He's simply asking you to trust Him with the next step, and then the next, then the next...Now, the challenge. Kids in crisis can't afford to wait until it's most convenient for you to care for them. They don't have that luxury. They need you to stop rationalizing what you know God is calling you to do - and just do it. Your "no" is a lot more difficult on them than your "yes" will ever be on you. Perhaps these kids needs your family as much as your family needs these kids. One is given comfort and security for likely the first time in their life while the other is freed from comfort and security, and as a result, actually finds life. Jesus Himself said, "Whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it." (Matthew 16:25) In perhaps one of the most counterintuitive and countercultural statements He ever made, we find what life is all about - losing ourselves for the sake of someone else's gain. Hard? Yes. Worth it? Absolutely. What you stand to lose pales in comparison to what everyone, including yourself, stands to gain. There's never really a perfect time to foster or adopt; just a lot of opportunities to say yes to losing yourself despite the many reasons you have to say no.
Jesus Is Better
Before someone pulls the Jesus-juke on this post and says that there is in fact a perfect time to foster or adopt - when God says to - let me be very clear: I agree, the perfect time to foster or adopt is when God says to - but be aware, He may tell you to when it's not the easiest, most convenient or comfortable for you. Obedience for you, then, is about considering the costs and choosing to believe that Jesus is better - that what He wants you to do for these kids is worth it and that He will take care of you every step of the way.Really, it's written to myself, the chief of all rationalizers and delayers.
But maybe also it's written to you. Only you know.
Families for Children: Should You Become a Foster Parent?
http://www.families4children.com/fc_should.cfm
Because I have been a foster mother to fourteen children, many people have asked me what being a foster parent really involves - what it is all about. They want to know how you go about becoming a foster parent, and what happens to you and your family when you open your heart and home to someone else´s child.
The need for more foster homes in our country is great, and becoming a foster parent is not a very difficult thing to do. Simply phone a local foster family agency, and tell them you are interested in becoming a foster parent. They´ll take it from there. They need you, and the children need you.
But before you place that call, give a few moments of thought to what is really involved. Understand that you will be changing your life, but you will also be changing the life of a child - helping to mold that life.
Some people have misconceptions about what being a foster parent entails. Sure, they say, they´d just love to be a foster parent. They can picture themselves opening their home to some poor, skinny waif, feeding him, and living happily ever after. But there´s more to it than that. For instance, if you value your freedom, if you like coming and going at will, perhaps being a foster parent is not for you.
A Foster child can be very time consuming. He comes to you with built-in problems. He has been in several homes already and is quite frightened, or else he has just been removed from a bad family situation and this makes him afraid. He can require more of your time and care than a natural - born child would, at least until he becomes adjusted to being with you. And don´t expect that adjustment to come quickly. It can take months.
Although you are free to choose the age and sex of the child you take into your home, he will still come to you with guaranteed problems and difficulties. Some are physical problems. Perhaps he has been starved or has a hearing or visual handicap. Maybe he has a bad heart or walks with a limp.
Some have learning problems-perhaps even have been labeled "retarded". Sometimes you are able to reach the child, guide him, and help him reach his true potential intellectually, but the process can be very difficult and can require all your energy and prayers-and then some. But if you do reach him, watching his progress and witnessing his development can be tremendously exciting and have immeasurable rewards.
Most foster children have emotional problems. You would too, if you were moved from one home to another, or if you came into a family environment that was so bad the authorities had to finally step in and have you removed from the situation.
Occasionally, children are placed in foster care because of some temporary problem in their family. Maybe the mother is ill or has deserted her family. Maybe the parents need substance abuse treatment and there is no one else to care for the child. This child may not have been mistreated. In such a case, the parents may love the child very much but may be forced to place him in a foster home for a short while. Such a move, even for a child who is loved and whose parent´s care for him, is still difficult, and you will fine you´ll have problems to contend with.
Lying is one of those problems. Foster children, until they become secure in your home, have a tendency to lie to you because they don´t trust you. They´ll brag about the home they just came from: tell you how big it was, how rich the people were, how important his father or other foster father was, or how much better his real mother cooks.
They will steal, break things, and deliberately disobey orders as they test you. They have to know that you really do care for them. More than anything else, they need to be cared for, to have someone love them. As a defense against the fear you won´t love them, they strike out at you in any way they can. They are asking you to love them by doing very unlovable things to you and your household. Does that make sense? Maybe not, and it may seem inconsistent, but there usually has not been anything very consistent in their lives.
Each foster child has a caseworker whose duty it is to see that the child placed in your home receives good care. When you have a problem, you can call the caseworker for help in trying to solve it.
How are your nerves? Most foster children are also likely to throw temper tantrums. It is their way of letting off steam, of living with the pressures and insecurities of knowing that they don´t have a real home. And believe me, they are well aware of that fact. So they scream and kick and cry. Or else they crawl into a shell and you can't get them to talk or play and you can´t seem to reach them at all. Then you wish they would yell or throw things or react irrationally instead of just sitting there.
Foster children may also wet their beds. Moving from one place to another is upsetting to their entire systems, but nighttime is especially overwhelming for them. They have nightmares. They wake up screaming or vomiting.
Your foster child can almost destroy any semblance of family harmony. You will tend to be extra cautious about his health or his play equipment because he isn´t really yours and you are responsible to the state or county for his well-being and protection.
Sometimes a child will come to you in such pathetic condition that just the thought of what he has been through will make you ill, then angry, and then determined that something must be done to correct his condition.
One set of foster parents I know was given a one-year-old boy who weighed only twelve pounds. When he came to them he was dying from malnutrition and neglect. He was so weak he couldn´t even move. He didn´t even have the strength to cry for the food his poor wasted little body so desperately needed.
It took a lot of good food, plenty of love, and a lot of prayer to pull the little fellow through, but at last he began to respond to a good diet and plenty of loving. By the time he recovered and was beginning to act and behave like a normal, healthy child, the foster mother and the child had formed such a strong attachment for each other that when he was moved and returned to his own home the separation was very painful for both of them.
That´s another matter to consider. When you get a foster child, you know that you will eventually have to give him up. If you are going to care for the child properly, then you must let yourself love him. You cannot hold back your love for him, because more than food, clothing, and a place to sleep, these children need love.
So you love the child and in a sense he comes to be your own. And yet, always in the back of your mind is the thought that this child will someday leave you. Occasionally a child will enter a foster home and remain there until he is grown. But most likely there will come a day when you will have to watch the child walk out to his caseworker´s car, climb in, and be taken to another home. And part of you goes with him, a very large part. The grief you will feel at that time can be just as deep and real and profound as if your own natural-born child was taken from you. It hurts.
Sometimes after you work and pray and devote yourself completely to bringing a sick, neglected child back to health, he will leave you to be returned to the same home, the same situation that caused him to be sick and neglected in the first place. You know that if he could just stay with you he´d have a real chance in life. But the law is the law, and if it says he is to go back home, back he goes. Then you lie awake at night and wonder how he is and is he is being mistreated again.
Each time a child is brought to you the entire family must adjust. When he leaves, there is a void in your home which requires another adjustment.
If you have children of your own, they may resent a stranger coming into their home, sharing their parents and perhaps even sharing their very own room. Usually, though, you will find your own youngsters will eagerly accept the idea of having a foster brother or sister. But when the "intruder" actually arrives, they may have second thoughts. It is up to you to handle the situation wisely so that none of the children are hurt by it all.
Now let´s discuss money. You will be paid by the agency that places the child with you. Each month you will receive a check which is to cover the cost of feeding and clothing your foster child. However, after feeding the child properly, and dressing him in decent clothing, you´ll find there will be only a little financial profit for you. In fact, you may need to dig into your own pocket sometimes. The agency does pay all the child´s medical expenses.
Being a foster parent means giving up a lot of your freedom, having your home invaded by a child who will probably do all he can to disrupt your family life, and shatter your nerves. Being a foster parent means taking into your home and your heart a desperately ill child, nursing him back to health, and then having to let him go. You stand there with empty arms and a broken heart.
Taking in a foster child means creating problems within your own family that could be avoided simply by not becoming a foster parent. It means disrupting your home situation until the newly arrived youngster becomes adjusted (if he does) and then upsetting things again when he leaves. It means spending money, not making money.
But being a foster parent also means doing something so rewarding, so vital, so important with your life that there is no way to measure the blessings that heap up around you--even as you vow never to take in another one, never to allow yourself to become so involved with another child again only to have to face the heartbreak of giving him up. Even as you say "Never again," you are waiting for a call from the agency saying they have a new child who needs a home.
Being a foster parent means that you are working in the greatest profession there is--Life. It means your home will be filled with love and tears and laughter. It means drying a frightened child´s tears, teaching her to smile and to respond to love. It means walking the floor at night with a precious newborn baby. It means watching that teenager grow and develop into a young person moving out on their own.
Being a foster parent means doing something with and for God. Because when you are a foster parent, you and God work as a team to help the little ones who are placed in your care.
Being a foster parent certainly has a lot of drawbacks. But if you aren´t afraid of facing problems... if you welcome the challenge of meeting a problem head-on and solving it...if you want to know that your life really counts for something, then help a child. Help mold his world. Help create a responsible future citizen.
--- author unknown
Because I have been a foster mother to fourteen children, many people have asked me what being a foster parent really involves - what it is all about. They want to know how you go about becoming a foster parent, and what happens to you and your family when you open your heart and home to someone else´s child.
The need for more foster homes in our country is great, and becoming a foster parent is not a very difficult thing to do. Simply phone a local foster family agency, and tell them you are interested in becoming a foster parent. They´ll take it from there. They need you, and the children need you.
But before you place that call, give a few moments of thought to what is really involved. Understand that you will be changing your life, but you will also be changing the life of a child - helping to mold that life.
Some people have misconceptions about what being a foster parent entails. Sure, they say, they´d just love to be a foster parent. They can picture themselves opening their home to some poor, skinny waif, feeding him, and living happily ever after. But there´s more to it than that. For instance, if you value your freedom, if you like coming and going at will, perhaps being a foster parent is not for you.
A Foster child can be very time consuming. He comes to you with built-in problems. He has been in several homes already and is quite frightened, or else he has just been removed from a bad family situation and this makes him afraid. He can require more of your time and care than a natural - born child would, at least until he becomes adjusted to being with you. And don´t expect that adjustment to come quickly. It can take months.
Although you are free to choose the age and sex of the child you take into your home, he will still come to you with guaranteed problems and difficulties. Some are physical problems. Perhaps he has been starved or has a hearing or visual handicap. Maybe he has a bad heart or walks with a limp.
Some have learning problems-perhaps even have been labeled "retarded". Sometimes you are able to reach the child, guide him, and help him reach his true potential intellectually, but the process can be very difficult and can require all your energy and prayers-and then some. But if you do reach him, watching his progress and witnessing his development can be tremendously exciting and have immeasurable rewards.
Most foster children have emotional problems. You would too, if you were moved from one home to another, or if you came into a family environment that was so bad the authorities had to finally step in and have you removed from the situation.
Occasionally, children are placed in foster care because of some temporary problem in their family. Maybe the mother is ill or has deserted her family. Maybe the parents need substance abuse treatment and there is no one else to care for the child. This child may not have been mistreated. In such a case, the parents may love the child very much but may be forced to place him in a foster home for a short while. Such a move, even for a child who is loved and whose parent´s care for him, is still difficult, and you will fine you´ll have problems to contend with.
Lying is one of those problems. Foster children, until they become secure in your home, have a tendency to lie to you because they don´t trust you. They´ll brag about the home they just came from: tell you how big it was, how rich the people were, how important his father or other foster father was, or how much better his real mother cooks.
They will steal, break things, and deliberately disobey orders as they test you. They have to know that you really do care for them. More than anything else, they need to be cared for, to have someone love them. As a defense against the fear you won´t love them, they strike out at you in any way they can. They are asking you to love them by doing very unlovable things to you and your household. Does that make sense? Maybe not, and it may seem inconsistent, but there usually has not been anything very consistent in their lives.
Each foster child has a caseworker whose duty it is to see that the child placed in your home receives good care. When you have a problem, you can call the caseworker for help in trying to solve it.
How are your nerves? Most foster children are also likely to throw temper tantrums. It is their way of letting off steam, of living with the pressures and insecurities of knowing that they don´t have a real home. And believe me, they are well aware of that fact. So they scream and kick and cry. Or else they crawl into a shell and you can't get them to talk or play and you can´t seem to reach them at all. Then you wish they would yell or throw things or react irrationally instead of just sitting there.
Foster children may also wet their beds. Moving from one place to another is upsetting to their entire systems, but nighttime is especially overwhelming for them. They have nightmares. They wake up screaming or vomiting.
Your foster child can almost destroy any semblance of family harmony. You will tend to be extra cautious about his health or his play equipment because he isn´t really yours and you are responsible to the state or county for his well-being and protection.
Sometimes a child will come to you in such pathetic condition that just the thought of what he has been through will make you ill, then angry, and then determined that something must be done to correct his condition.
One set of foster parents I know was given a one-year-old boy who weighed only twelve pounds. When he came to them he was dying from malnutrition and neglect. He was so weak he couldn´t even move. He didn´t even have the strength to cry for the food his poor wasted little body so desperately needed.
It took a lot of good food, plenty of love, and a lot of prayer to pull the little fellow through, but at last he began to respond to a good diet and plenty of loving. By the time he recovered and was beginning to act and behave like a normal, healthy child, the foster mother and the child had formed such a strong attachment for each other that when he was moved and returned to his own home the separation was very painful for both of them.
That´s another matter to consider. When you get a foster child, you know that you will eventually have to give him up. If you are going to care for the child properly, then you must let yourself love him. You cannot hold back your love for him, because more than food, clothing, and a place to sleep, these children need love.
So you love the child and in a sense he comes to be your own. And yet, always in the back of your mind is the thought that this child will someday leave you. Occasionally a child will enter a foster home and remain there until he is grown. But most likely there will come a day when you will have to watch the child walk out to his caseworker´s car, climb in, and be taken to another home. And part of you goes with him, a very large part. The grief you will feel at that time can be just as deep and real and profound as if your own natural-born child was taken from you. It hurts.
Sometimes after you work and pray and devote yourself completely to bringing a sick, neglected child back to health, he will leave you to be returned to the same home, the same situation that caused him to be sick and neglected in the first place. You know that if he could just stay with you he´d have a real chance in life. But the law is the law, and if it says he is to go back home, back he goes. Then you lie awake at night and wonder how he is and is he is being mistreated again.
Each time a child is brought to you the entire family must adjust. When he leaves, there is a void in your home which requires another adjustment.
If you have children of your own, they may resent a stranger coming into their home, sharing their parents and perhaps even sharing their very own room. Usually, though, you will find your own youngsters will eagerly accept the idea of having a foster brother or sister. But when the "intruder" actually arrives, they may have second thoughts. It is up to you to handle the situation wisely so that none of the children are hurt by it all.
Now let´s discuss money. You will be paid by the agency that places the child with you. Each month you will receive a check which is to cover the cost of feeding and clothing your foster child. However, after feeding the child properly, and dressing him in decent clothing, you´ll find there will be only a little financial profit for you. In fact, you may need to dig into your own pocket sometimes. The agency does pay all the child´s medical expenses.
Being a foster parent means giving up a lot of your freedom, having your home invaded by a child who will probably do all he can to disrupt your family life, and shatter your nerves. Being a foster parent means taking into your home and your heart a desperately ill child, nursing him back to health, and then having to let him go. You stand there with empty arms and a broken heart.
Taking in a foster child means creating problems within your own family that could be avoided simply by not becoming a foster parent. It means disrupting your home situation until the newly arrived youngster becomes adjusted (if he does) and then upsetting things again when he leaves. It means spending money, not making money.
But being a foster parent also means doing something so rewarding, so vital, so important with your life that there is no way to measure the blessings that heap up around you--even as you vow never to take in another one, never to allow yourself to become so involved with another child again only to have to face the heartbreak of giving him up. Even as you say "Never again," you are waiting for a call from the agency saying they have a new child who needs a home.
Being a foster parent means that you are working in the greatest profession there is--Life. It means your home will be filled with love and tears and laughter. It means drying a frightened child´s tears, teaching her to smile and to respond to love. It means walking the floor at night with a precious newborn baby. It means watching that teenager grow and develop into a young person moving out on their own.
Being a foster parent means doing something with and for God. Because when you are a foster parent, you and God work as a team to help the little ones who are placed in your care.
Being a foster parent certainly has a lot of drawbacks. But if you aren´t afraid of facing problems... if you welcome the challenge of meeting a problem head-on and solving it...if you want to know that your life really counts for something, then help a child. Help mold his world. Help create a responsible future citizen.
--- author unknown
Oconee County Family talks about foster care.
Oconee County Family talks about foster care.
http://www.wyff4.com/news/south-carolina-doesnt-have-enough-foster-homes/31735546
http://www.wyff4.com/news/south-carolina-doesnt-have-enough-foster-homes/31735546
This isn' t about you
EASLEY – More than 90 families signed up to open their homes to
foster children after a coalition of Pickens County faith-based groups
called on churches to step up and eliminate the shortage of foster homes
in the county, organizers of the program said.
The Greenville News reported earlier this month that Pickens County had more than 120 children in foster care but only 40 foster homes, and that the Dream Center of Pickens County, a faith-based nonprofit in Easley, would host to a program called Fostering Hope on May 12 to encourage people of faith to address the problem.
"The results of the Fostering Hope event were nothing less than miraculous," organizers said in a statement released Friday.
"The question has always been, do people not want to foster or are they unaware of the need?" Dan Bracken, one of the organizers said. "Tuesday's event proved we lacked awareness."
"This event clearly demonstrated that when we pull these children out of the nooks and crannies and give them a voice, people respond," he said. "The key to addressing this problem around the state and country is exposing the need, articulating a clear message, and calling on people to respond."
In addition to 90 families applying to become licensed foster homes, another 75 started the process of learning more about it to consider making the commitment, organizers said.
Another 52 signed up to become mentors to foster children, and others volunteered for the Guardian Ad Litem program, which gives abused and neglected children support as they go through the court system, they said.
"We believed from day one that the collective church body in Pickens County would respond," Chris Wilson, executive director of the Dream Center said. "Tuesday we saw the power of the church when we unite as one body."
Children donated their time to clean bathrooms in preparation for the event. One church paid for a billboard to advertise it. Another church provided refreshments, she said.
"We saw pastors exhibit servant leadership by working behind the scenes in the parking lot," she said.
More than 75 churches participated in the event, Wilson said.
"We are excited to see what comes next," she said. "We know our work is not done and we have shifted our focus towards getting these families licensed."
Charlie Crumpton, an event organizer and adoptive father of a former foster child whose family was featured in the article by The News, said he thinks the article played a large role in motivating nearly 500 people to come out to the event.
"It was a huge success," he said.
He also praised the Dream Center's work over the past three years, saying it "plowed the soil to create the conditions where churches could unite and work together."
The Greenville News reported earlier this month that Pickens County had more than 120 children in foster care but only 40 foster homes, and that the Dream Center of Pickens County, a faith-based nonprofit in Easley, would host to a program called Fostering Hope on May 12 to encourage people of faith to address the problem.
"The results of the Fostering Hope event were nothing less than miraculous," organizers said in a statement released Friday.
"The question has always been, do people not want to foster or are they unaware of the need?" Dan Bracken, one of the organizers said. "Tuesday's event proved we lacked awareness."
"This event clearly demonstrated that when we pull these children out of the nooks and crannies and give them a voice, people respond," he said. "The key to addressing this problem around the state and country is exposing the need, articulating a clear message, and calling on people to respond."
In addition to 90 families applying to become licensed foster homes, another 75 started the process of learning more about it to consider making the commitment, organizers said.
Another 52 signed up to become mentors to foster children, and others volunteered for the Guardian Ad Litem program, which gives abused and neglected children support as they go through the court system, they said.
"We believed from day one that the collective church body in Pickens County would respond," Chris Wilson, executive director of the Dream Center said. "Tuesday we saw the power of the church when we unite as one body."
Children donated their time to clean bathrooms in preparation for the event. One church paid for a billboard to advertise it. Another church provided refreshments, she said.
"We saw pastors exhibit servant leadership by working behind the scenes in the parking lot," she said.
More than 75 churches participated in the event, Wilson said.
"We are excited to see what comes next," she said. "We know our work is not done and we have shifted our focus towards getting these families licensed."
Charlie Crumpton, an event organizer and adoptive father of a former foster child whose family was featured in the article by The News, said he thinks the article played a large role in motivating nearly 500 people to come out to the event.
"It was a huge success," he said.
He also praised the Dream Center's work over the past three years, saying it "plowed the soil to create the conditions where churches could unite and work together."
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