Wednesday, May 17, 2017

No Longer Empty Nesters”

Let me be right up front in telling you, we didn’t sign up for this.
Three years ago, when we first got involved in Safe Families for Children, our thoughts were that we would be helping to care for teenagers. That is my passion. So, when we got that first call to be the host family for a brother and
sister that were 30 months and 18 months old, we thought
about it for a long time before we reluctantly said yes.
Our youngest son was a senior in high school, and we were
liking the freedom that that brought. A lot! When people
asked if I was concerned about having an empty house, I
told them when it happened, we were going to throw a
party. A bottle of wine, watching the sun set from our deck,
and no one else was going to be invited. We were going to enjoy the peace and quiet.
Enter our two Safe Families
munchkins.... daycare and diapers, two-year-old tantrums and no privacy.
It wasn’t easy then and isn’t always easy now. I found out just how selfish I am with my time. And yet, they love us and we love them. These two have become a part of our lives, and the lives of our grown children. Three years after they first came to stay with us, they are still a huge part of our lives.
Someone much smarter than me said if you are going to say you are pro-life, you also need to be pro-kid, pro-single mom, pro-homeless child.
This is our test and testimony of that.
So often we love those ministries that fit into the time we think we have available rather than the time God gave us.
Kari and I find ourselves missing eating out because sitters aren’t available on a moment’s notice.
But we still have enough to eat.
We long for a lazy morning sleeping in past 7:00 AM.
But we still get enough sleep.
We don’t enjoy having to drive to school each morning and navigating the crazy school traffic. But hearing,” I don’t want to be dropped off at the curb,will you walk me to the door?” is pretty cool.
We wish for the privacy of being able to use the bathroom in peace.
But hearing knock, knock, knock,“Do you want to build a snowman?”
through the door is pretty precious.
We wish we had our house to ourselves.
But we have a house.
This might not have been the ministry that we would have chosen for ourselves. But sometimes when it comes to ministry choices, God gets to choose. And we are learning to be obedient to that.
He brings the best to those who follow His lead.