A week after her arrival, we took our foster child, Yara (not her real name, but Colombia does not allow the children's real names to be posted online), to a really amazing event at our church. Our church has a really unique (and huge) ministry to foster families in the area; in fact, that was how we discovered our church in the first place.
Anyway, once a year the church sponsors an event for Christmas, where the church collects donations of new items for foster families. The foster parents are allowed to make a wish list for each foster child, with one large (read: expensive) gift requested, then a list of the child's interests, so items can be purchased in line with those. Then the youth group goes shopping for all the items on the list. We heard two hundred kids (and adults) from the youth program showed up at Walmart one evening to shop. What Walmart didn't have from the kid's lists, was ordered through Amazon.
The end result? We were able to take Yara on event day - called "Fostering Hope" - to receive the large gift we chose for her. Then she was able to navigate a room full of tables overflowing with gifts, with her own personal shopper, selecting things she wanted from each table. I told you it was amazing!
This helps foster parents so much, with not only financial support, but emotional support too. Every foster parent makes a stop in the church prayer room, where volunteers pray over the foster kids and families. And gifts are not only for the foster kids; the church also gives to the biological kids in each family; their way of recognizing that biological kids are serving and sacrificing as well as being part of a foster family unit. As we were leaving the event, someone gave a $100 Amazon gift card to my son "just for being amazing." 💗 (He is!)
Tavo helping Yara pick out new pajamas. Her "personal shopper" has a new scarf for her on the right.
My husband and Yara, the decision of what to choose from the art supply table was difficult!
She loves art.
(Note that the clothes she is wearing all came from the church. The church has a year-round "closet" available of new and used donations that foster families can "shop" in whenever they have a need. (It's all free for the families.) It's a huge help when a family gets a sudden placement of kids who arrive with nothing. Yara came to us with just a backpack.
Our temporary foster family. What a fun day!
Here's a pic at the end of Yara with all her new stuff. There is even a team of people who wraps everything for you! Most of the foster parents go without the kids, so the gifts will be a surprise, but since we didn't know her tastes, we asked permission to take her with us to choose what she wanted. She just has to wait till Christmas for most of the gifts.
We had no idea what big gift to ask for her (we had to submit the request in October), but we thought a bike might be fun, even if it's just for three weeks. We have a tradition each year (because Tennessee has enough warm nights in December) of going out several evenings riding bikes together around the neighborhoods to look at Christmas lights. But we didn't have a bike for Yara.
So it was a huge surprise to discover that she didn't know how to ride a bike!
My husband had to walk alongside her, holding it up while she wobbled the first afternoon out. But by the end of the second day she was a pro. 🙂
Here we are in front of a random house looking at lights.
It's always fun!!
A few other highlights:
Yara wanted to bring bunuelos, a Colombian pastry, to Greg's family Christmas party.
Now Tavo knows how to make them too!
I ordered three of the same "Woobles" kits, so we could all make a crochet project together. Our Felix the Foxes are a work in progress!
It's been the perfect project for three people who like creating.
Not sure how Tavo's came out the best (since he has zero experience), but he helped Yara redo hers...there's a learning curve!
We had our Colombian friends over for dinner and games. Fun times!
To be honest, it has not been ALL fun times. We've had our ups and downs, even in just two weeks. We're still not sure where this is going, or how it's going to end yet.
At the end of the day, we focus on the positives. Tavo, our son, was in Yara's shoes six years ago when he was a host child. He keeps telling me how much she reminds him of himself then. (Read: extremely quiet and guarded emotionally.)
But I have found something I've been looking for ever since our foster child placement left us just over two years ago: a greater sense of purpose. Our two years of foster care were the hardest of my life, but I also woke up each morning with a sense of satisfaction greater than I've felt at any other time in my life, knowing the majority of the minutes in my day were serving someone with great needs, someone I was not related to in any way. I've been looking for that feeling ever since.
My son gets up every morning and makes chocolate and breakfast for Yara. He has come full circle; where once he was the receiver, now he's the giver. And he tells me he wants to adopt from Colombia himself one day because he understands the kids. (See? He IS amazing!) Seeing God transform his life gives me hope for us all.
If that's not the spirit of Christmas, I don't know what is.
