National Foster Care Month

This year is the the 30th National Foster Care Month in the USA. It began in 1988 with President Ronald Reagan.

To me, it is a reminder of the Gospel, the greatest news of all time:

God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.

-Ephesians 1:5

So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God's Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, "Abba, Father."

-Romans 8:15

My mom shared this video recently, and I was reminded once again how my family and I personally have been blessed by both foster care and adoption, and how grateful I am for those who are a part of this.  

In honor of this month, I want to share with you two (of the many) organizations that I have come to love and support. They work with orphan prevention (something that has become very important to me), foster care, and adoption.

The first one is here in Guatemala, Hope for Home Ministries. It was founded and is operated by one of my friend's family. They specifically work with special-needs orphans and families who have children with special needs. Because of limited funds and staff, they have to turn away several needy children per day. Just recently, they had to turn away a group of six siblings ages 13 and younger, two of siblings being pregnant. Most children who can't be placed into safe homes stay with their abusive families or get put into overcrowded and abusive government facilities. 

I have been fortunate to be able to collaborate in small ways with the nurse they work with who is taking on their new birthing center project which will be built outside of a large dump. 

If you'd like to support them or learn more about them, check them out here.

The second ministry is in my second homeland- Honduras. My friend Tara and her husband founded and run this organization called Identity Mission. They work with public orphanages, private orphanages, training Christian foster families, supporting families so they don't have to give their children away, and finding adoptive families when it isn't possible for children to stay with their family.

If you'd like to support them or learn more about them, you can visit them here.

BONUS: any donation to you give to them this month will be doubled in honor of National Foster Care Month!

I read a blog recently from Story International here in Guatemala with this statistic:

“Each year, approximately 14,050,000 children turn 18 and age out of the system. They cease to be included in the total number of orphans worldwide. They do not, however, cease to be a vulnerable population."

Do you have a story to share about orphan prevention, foster care, or adoption? I'd love to hear about it!

I was remembering recently how God designed us as humans to be part of loving families. The family is God's design. And I remembered how Jesus Christ himself was adopted by his father, Joseph. Another example to me of the beauty of adoption.