Did you know over 400,000 children are in the foster care system every year? Only about 50 percent of them live in a foster home. That means there are somewhere around 200,000 foster homes in America today.

I cannot speak for those 200,000 that are put in foster homes, but I can speak from the home itself … well, my home. I was about 12 years old when my family started being a foster family. I remember the kids coming and staying in our guest bedroom, or sometimes my siblings and I would bunk together so that the child could have our room. Most did not stay too long. Some only for a couple weeks and others for a couple months. I am the oldest sibling with two younger brothers, so needless to say, we always had a full house. Some days it is not easy. Sometimes I wish I had my family to myself. More than that, though, I feel lucky to be a part of something so life-changing.

At first, the kids were older than me. It was weird for me to see kids older than myself come into my home because they couldn’t stay in theirs. I did not quite understand it. They didn’t always behave like they were supposed to, and I could see the stress that it put on my parents to have a child that did not want to be here. A year or so later, we started getting children much younger. Two- and 3-year-olds that had been abused, babies that had been neglected, little kids that didn’t have a home that was safe for them. It was heartbreaking. For my parents, I think it was more about giving the children a safe place. For me, I think it was more about making them happy. At 13, all I wanted was to see that kid smile. I was told not to get attached because the kids wouldn’t be staying. I hated to think that they would be going back to a place that could just make them upset again. All I wanted was for them to be really happy while they were here, to make up for the unhappiness they had previously endured.

The worst of it all was seeing them go, most of them going back into a broken home. After months of getting to know them, one of which we had over a year, there have been many tears. You see, being a foster family is doing exactly what the title implies. Making them part of the family. There is no other way to say it than that each person that stayed in my home was part of the family, even if it was just for a few days.

I am thankful. I feel as though God has placed each one of them into our lives for a reason, and I hope we have had as much of a positive impact on them as they have on us. It is truly a humbling experience to have those much less fortunate than yourself come and live with you. There are many days when I wonder how they are doing and if I will ever see them again. I wonder if they will remember me because I know I cannot forget them.

Matthew 25:40 — “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’”