Foster Care & God's Faithfulness

As a foster family, this question was asked to me, ‘Where do you see God being faithful to you during your foster care journey?’ Wow. Where do I even begin?

My husband, Ron, and I have five children. John and Vincent are our oldest at nineteen (twins), we have an eleven year old daughter, Lila, a nine year old son, Levi, and a seven year old daughter, Emerson. We are also blessed to have my 79 year old aunt living with us as well! We were a foster family in Indiana during 2019 and 2020. Our move back to Florida in March of 2021 gave us a little break from foster care, but after much prayer, we decided to get re-licensed here in Florida in early 2022. And so it begins…. 

God’s faithfulness has been so evident in our journey but hear me when I say it hasn’t been easy!!! We dove into our foster care journey here in Florida HEAD first!  After two weeks with a newborn, we accepted placement of a sibling set of two: a little one who just turned two and his five month old brother. That’s right, as completely sane people, we thought ‘Yes, we would like to add a two year old, five month old and newborn to our already large family. ‘ The thing is, we had prayed for this. So many people have used the phrase ‘you already have so much on your plate’ …. But that’s the thing about following the Lord’s calling for you…. It’s like feeling that call and not responding was a burden on my plate and by answering His call, we were able to remove that burden and add these babies. Our plate is always going to be full and to be honest, I think life works best for us with a full plate, but it truly does matter WHAT is filling your plate. The burden of ignoring the Lord’s call was just too much. That is something I remind myself when I am sleep deprived and questioning my ability to continue on this journey.

 We are officially eight months into our foster care journey here in Florida and I am finally stepping up out of the trenches. It has been hard, but God. That’s all there is to it. God has been so generous with us lately. He has met me at my weakest moments and revealed Himself SO clearly. It is not lost on me that not everyone receives that blessing, the blessing of God revealing His plan while being in the midst of it. Not only has God reminded me of the amazing opportunity we have to share Christ’s love with these children but He’s given us the chance to share it with their families. 

So although I have felt the Lord’s presence in this journey from the beginning, lately He’s made himself known in the little things. I feel the Lord in the phone calls from biological parents, the brokenness in them, and their need for Christ…. I get to answer and encourage. I hear the Lord in the late hours of the night while holding someone else’s baby…. I get to love that child and pray for their mama. I see the Lord when I’ve stretched myself too thin and my own children step into this selfless role to care for others with such grace and such ease and I realize that I don’t actually ‘got’ this but praise the Lord that HE does. 

Life in foster care can absolutely test your faith. My encouragement to other families would be to stay connected and ask for help. Don’t let the enemy fill you with doubt and isolate you. Remember, if the Lord calls you to it, He will surely see you through it. 

Always blessed,

Jenna Davenport (and family)