Birth, Step, Foster, Adopt – It is all Family. Build yours with us.
“Behold! Children are a gift from the Lord. They are a true blessing!” Psalms 127:3
By Rosey Moreno-Jones
I recently had the opportunity to conduct a Foster/Adoptive Parent Orientation for participants getting ready to begin Kids Central PRIDE classes starting their journey towards fostering and/or adoption. Over 70 people attended; the largest orientation we have ever done at Kids Central. What a blessing to stand in front of so many people who have answered the call to care for Florida’s most vulnerable children – the abused, neglected or abandoned.
As we talked about the classes and what they would be learning, it was heartening to see so many people who have come forward recently to inquire about fostering and adopting. Our recruitment efforts are reaching more and more people. I am spending more time speaking to churches and civic groups, our social media efforts are exploding, and we are finding new and innovative ways of spreading our message.
We recently updated our Facebook Page Timeline with the graphic and quote: “Birth, Step, Foster, Adopt – It is all Family. Build yours with us!” When our marketing team unveiled the page, I just loved it. I know firsthand that families are created in many ways – not just through blood. However, each family can be defined by the love that surrounds them and fills their home. There are so many ways that Kids Central helps children find temporary or permanent homes; thereby building families and changing lives.
As foster and adoptive parents, we know that the children we welcome into our homes are true gifts, blessings from the Lord. We may care for them for a day, a week, a month or a lifetime – but no matter the length of time, we spend together, the love we share with them never stops.
A great quote by Tonia Christie touches on this so beautifully, “You might be temporary in their life. They might be temporary in yours. But there is nothing temporary about the love or the lesson.”
What a lovely sentiment about the lives of our foster children and the foster parents who care for them.
Here in Circuit 5 (Citrus, Lake, Hernando, Marion and Sumter Counties) our recruitment efforts are productive; however, the need is still greater than the resources. With some 450 children in temporary foster care, we struggle each day to keep them in safe and loving foster homes. About 30% of those children are waiting for permanent, forever families through adoption. Some children may never be adopted and will age out of the child welfare system without permanency, without a chance of the love of a forever family.
Perhaps you can help. Please think about it. Contact us to find out more about building a family with us. Contact me to come visit your church, civic group or business to talk about the needs we have and the process involved with becoming foster or adoptive parents. You will not regret taking the next steps, because whether by birth, marriage, fostering or adopting, it is all FAMILY and family is one of the most important things any of us will ever have in our lives. Children are a gift from the Lord – a true blessing!
