A Mother to the Motherless

God has recently instilled in me something that is very foreign to me, and I feel like I need to write it all down and lay it all out there.

Over Christmas break I was reading a book by Karen Kingsbury called When Joy Came to Stay, and throughout the book the issue of foster care came up - the lack of fit foster homes and the impact that being bounced from house to house has on a child's wellbeing. As I was reading, my heart broke for these children. They are victims of circumstances beyond their control, and without parents who do they have to really love on them?

Then I felt that little nudge on my heart (you know, the one you feel and recognize but often try to ignore because it usually asks you to do something you don't really want to do). And God and I had a conversation that went something like this:

"Anna, you need to love on these kids."

"...Um...no thanks, God. I can barely make it through a weekend of Snow Camp without going insane, much less taking care of someone else's children for months on end."

But if there is one thing I know for sure about God, it is that He is relentless. Gradually the idea grew on me until it became something I actually want to do. God has instilled in me the desire to be a mommy. Actually, a foster mom to be exact.

I have always wanted to adopt - and fully intend to. However, never ever ever would I have thought I would even consider being a foster parent. But now I have found myself looking up the requirements and asking God to work out a way for me to be one as soon as possible (which is a year and a half from now, by the way...). After all, we are called to take care of the widows and the orphans (James 1:27).

Please don't ask me how I plan for this to all work out. How will I figure out a schedule my junior year of college that will allow me to still graduate in four years, have a job, and take care of a child; where will I find a roommate who won't mind me being a mom (or where I will even live for that matter) - I haven't the slightest idea. Maybe it won't even happen until later in life. All I know is that when it is supposed to happen, God will work out the details for it to happen because he is sovereign and he can do things like that.

Back in December, I asked God to let me live in a house with no doors. I think that maybe this is a big part of what that will look like.