{31 Days} Where Will You Stand?

In the last 7 days I worked to lay out a picture of the foster care system as it stands today. I hope that I was able to shed a little light on some of the myths that are floating around, tainting people's perception of "the system" and the 400,000+ kids that are a part of it.

Myths aside, we also need to recognize that the foster care system isn’t perfect. A “system,” especially a broken one, is never meant to raise a kid.  I dream of mending its broken pieces into a bright and beautiful mosaic that paints a future of hope. But what do we do with all of these shards? -- the stigmas, a shoe string budget, over burdened social workers, burnt out foster parents, those that take advantage of the system…. etc. etc... here, I confess, I don’t even know how to accomplish such a revolution.

But I think I know where we can begin.

1.  More foster families

2. A community that supports them

Can you agree to jump on board with that? How can you help to mend the broken pieces into a beautiful mosaic? Can you be a foster parent? Would you consider adoption? Or perhaps can you support in some way? As I said before, not everyone can be a foster parent, but everyone can do something to support the families and the kids in the system.

That’s it for today. Please think about it, pray about it. What can you do? Where will you stand? Maybe it's physical and emotional support for a foster family or a teen that's aged out, going through and donating clothes, participating in an organization that's already working to serve these kids, or maybe it means instead of turning your college student's room into an office, waiting a few years so that you can take in a teen that desperately needs your guidance. You don’t have to totally know what it looks like yet, just know that you are willing to take a stand. Let’s start a conversation in the comments here. Tomorrow I will share my ideas.