Our names are Heather and John McEntire. We began to pursue becoming foster parents in November 2007 after a recent miscarriage. When God began burdening our hearts toward foster care, we thought it was crazy. We wondered with our grief so fresh why God wanted us to start taking in children just to give them up. The risk that we would eventually have to face – the grief of giving up a foster child was scary but we knew that God had been working in both of our hearts to lead us toward fostering. We started the process of foster training in December 2007, still wondering what God was going to do. We did know that it was God’s story to write and we had to be obedient to what he was calling us to do regardless of how terrifying it could be.
In April, we were awaiting the arrival of our foster license that had been misplaced for two weeks. Our social service worker was searching a placement for Ethan and Robbie and that morning under a file, she found our foster license on her desk. She spoke about the two little boys in that file who needed a foster home. We weren’t really planning on taking more than one child the first time, but God in His infinite wisdom had other plans…
When I called John to let him know and check with him about taking two kids instead of one, he enthusiastically replied, “BRING THEM ON!”
The day the social worker came for a visit to let us know that the plan for the boys was changing to adoption was when we began to see what God had in mind for our family from the beginning. Our adoption journey contains detail after detail, showing a beautiful intentionality in this story that God was writing. There are so many small details that made a huge impact on their placement with us that only God could have orchestrated. So many times God reminded us of Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” God has taught us so much about trusting Him and following the story that He writes instead of our own. There is so much about what God holds in our future that we don’t know. A possibility for a year overseas has come up through John’s job. There are many questions we can’t answer about where we will be when asked, but we know that through all the uncertainty God is in control. He knows where He is taking our family and He has a reason for where we will be in 2015.
Anyone considering foster care/adoption is in for a long journey full of emotional ups and downs. We were foster parents for 2 years and 10 days, before the adoption was finalized. It was an amazing process that can be so scary and intimidating, but worth every bit of it!! Couples considering this should always remember that God has a plan for your life. He writes beautiful stories that we could not even begin to imagine writing on our own. Gather family and friends that can support you with prayer and lots of love and jump in!!!!
