Dear Foster Mama {and Every Mama} ~

You're a doer, fixer, a list-checker ...

You wouldn't be in this space if you weren't.

In preparation for calls, for the yes's, for the little ones who fill your beds...

You secured the baby gates, mounted the extinguisher, cleared the medical exams and answered the questions.

You finished the race to reach the beginning...

Of your sacrifice.

What you didn't realize was that all your efforts to prepare for the future would screechingly halt as you learned to live in the present...to love in the present.

In class after class they told you, instructed you...

You would not be gaining a child for a lifetime;

You would be making a lifetime impact.

It's right to own it, to speak it, to grieve it...

From the moment the worker places that child in your arms, that you speak his name for the first time...

Your heart jumps to fix...

the wide-eyed, terrified, panic-stricken little one, you've been asked to become a steward of...

For this season.

For this moment.

With nothing but the clothes on his back, you rally the troops for a toothbrush, pajamas, underwear and clothes.

You register for school, set a counseling schedule, and meet the nightly screams.

Minute after minute you answer with obedient faithfulness..

Even when your heart shatters, even when soul aches...

Until one minute, an outside forces deems it will no longer be required of you.

And the arms that once rocked are empty.

The list once filled on behalf of another, is blank.

From the moment of your Yes, you have steadily climbed the mountain to the altar of your offering.

For not one of us is called to forever in this world, my Friend.

We are not the fixer, the redeemer, or the rescuer. 

We are called to live for another world, that for which we were made.

So my friend, while you love deeply in the present, ache fiercely in the moment, die fully in this time...

Knowing you were never designed to own,

But to surrender with open hands...

My beautiful friend loving on her Moment, regardless of the tomorrow.

Recognize you are not making a lifetime impact...

You are making an eternal impression on behalf of the One who is our Fixer, Redeemer, our Rescuer.

And so, we rise to bless you ~