**We found out Thursday that it wasn't going to work out for us to participate this year. We know God has a perfect plan and pray some time in the future we are able to serve Him through the foster care system in this way.
This year for Christmas, our family is planning to do something different.
After some friends told us about how they participated in a program called "home for the holidays" with DHS over Thanksgiving, we have decided we would love to have this opportunity as well!
In both Oklahoma and Cleveland county, there are many kids in DHS custody, and lots of these kids are in a shelter right now and will be for Christmas, which means they are not living with a family yet.
In these two counties, you can request to host one or more children for a day or even over the entire holiday break to allow these children to be "home for the holidays." I don't know if you all have ever been inside a state shelter, but I have; It's nowhere I'd want to spend any holiday. I had no idea prior to visiting with our friends that this was even a possibility! There is no reason at all that our family shouldn't open our home to another child, especially at such a significant time of year. Christmas really can be a special time if we allow it to be. It's so easy to get caught up in Christmas shopping, making lists, elf on the shelf, Santa stuff, cooking, and when we are going "here" or there." I'm not at all saying that these things are bad; our family enjoys doing them all. This year though, we thought it would be appropriate to be intentional about sharing Christ's love with "one of the least of these" and open our home to whoever God places here. I think it will help prepare our hearts for our adoption as well as God opens up our hearts as we open up our home. I know He will show us a lot about love through this opportunity and am really excited about watching Him move through our lives. Our prayer is actually that there will be no kids in any shelter, which means they will all be in a home this Christmas season, but if that isn't the case, we're praying we can have the opportunity to love a little extra this year :)
If you are interested, here is the name and phone number of the worker who you would contact, if you live in Cleveland County. If not, she could point you to the right person for your county.
Patti Jensen
405.912.2000
oh wow! That sounds like a great idea. I would love to do something like this. I can't wait to have a house :)
ReplyDeleteIt isn't going to work out for us to do this, this year. I'll admit I am kind of bummed, but I am still trusting God that He knows best :)
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