What is Grace? It is kindness and patience we don’t deserve. It is the help and strength we receive. Yet, the Grace I am referring to is my beautiful teenage daughter who taught this blogger a valuable lesson!
I had just finished posting a blog and was reading it to my daughter when the question came,
“Why don’t you ever write about us?” The “us” she was referring to is the biological children in our home. The question hit me like a ton of bricks. In all my years of writing my topics have always centered around foster parents or the children we foster. I’ve written about heroes, miracles and overcoming the odds. Overlooking all the time that my now teenagers have grown up as two of the biggest heroes of all.
My daughter’s response in learning I was writing about her confirms that I have lost my perspective on the family team that fosters.
She asked me if I would get in trouble if I didn’t write about foster children. That because she hasn’t survived some tragedy, isn’t a medical miracle or hasn’t been adopted into a family, there’s nothing too special to write about. This couldn’t be further from the truth!
It is said that we often have to lose sight of something in order to see it. She has brought my vision into a crystal clear new perspective.
She has been a hero to countless little lives over the past seven years. The miracles have come daily in her unconditional love, her ongoing empathy and her willingness to share her parents’ time, attention and love with any child we welcome.
People have approached me in public to tell me how wonderful it is to see the love she shares with the “littles.” Her gentle approach attracts the attention of people. Nurses at Children’s Wisconsin have commented on the connection she has with the young children.
Fostering involves the entire family and it’s easy to take those who do it so effortlessly for granted. It’s easy to get wrapped up in the appointments and court dates, to celebrate the big but overlook the simple.
So to keep it simple . . . You are simply Amazing Grace! Thank you for fostering alongside me and thank you for the grace you’ve given to me along the way!
