Violin & Djembe: walking by faith

this summer has been quite a ride for our family. We returned from Colorado in June and about 2 weeks later took in an NSA baby girl who had been in the NICU for a month. I roomed in with her at the hospital on the night before they released her, and we assumed we'd have her for the summer. (we knew that her grandmother had filed for custody). Those 3 weeks were some of the richest and hardest of my life. He grandmother ended up becoming a foster mom for her and was able to get her more quickly which was a blessing for all involved...Erin had started to attach to us and us to her, and since she had a family member who was more than capable and desiring to raise her, that is who she needed to be with. Saying goodbye to her was a hard thing for our whole family and I cried most of the day that she left, but it was also one of the most worshipful times I've ever had with my kids and all day I felt God smiling down on our tears. We felt very honored to have been a part of her life and the compassion that I saw come out of my children in loving on her was a sight to witness.

So Erin ended up leaving us after only 2 weeks of being home with us, and we have not had another "right" call since then. However 3 weeks ago we heard about a refugee family in Knoxville that had lost their kids to DCS due to some crazy circumstances and had been placed in a foster home that was not a good fit for them. They wanted to keep all 3 kids together so we figured that was not a good fit for us, but as of last week they have decided to split the kids up in order to find a better place for them since they could not find a home that would take all 3. It turns out we know this family through my ESL teaching when we first arrived in knoxville and then through a home cleaning business that has been started to help refugee women make a living to contribute to their families. Through lots of prayer and soul searching it seems like Spencer and I have been very uniquely prepared and equipped to take the baby into our home (he is 8 months old). This has been a hard decision since we know from the beginning that these kids will never be adoptable. They need to be with their parents as soon as possible but their parents have to work through the court system and that is going to take some time (possibly even up to 2 years). So we are committing to love and care for this little boy as an act of love for him and for his parents and for the sake of the Gospel until the time when he can go home. It is not what we were hoping for and a situation that we never saw coming, but we feel like this is part of the story God has for our lives and it has woken up my missionary heart. We probably won't actually get him for about 2.5 weeks (after we get back from a beach trip to NC). We're excited and sobered and are grateful for prayer!