Interrupted. Christine’s story

I am a biological, foster and adoptive mum and God has shaped our family in unexpected ways along this journey. We’ve had the privilege of caring for children for a chapter in their stories before they’ve been able to reunify with their biological families and we’ve had the privilege of adopting our two youngest children.

To be honest, fostering is all about being willing to be interrupted. I was on my way to speak and lead a Women’s Conference on a Fall afternoon a few years ago. Right before I arrived at camp, I received a phone call.

There was a baby boy, let’s call him Noah, who was ready to be released from the hospital. Because there were drugs found in little Noah’s body at birth, he was immediately separated from his mother and entered foster care. Having made his home in her body for nearly nine months, she was not a safe person to go home with at this point in her story and so he was taken from her arms.

The Social Worker needed to identify a foster family to welcome this little one in the most precarious and vulnerable moments of his brand new life. Would we open our arms and our hearts to him while his mama was getting the support she would need to be able to be reunified with her beloved baby boy?

Like Jason Johnson says, “There’s never really a perfect time to foster or adopt; just a lot of opportunities to say yes despite the many reasons you may have to say no.”

I remember thinking I had a choice. Although we were waiting for a call, we didn’t have to say yes. It didn’t really make a lot of sense for me to re-route my weekend plans, but I recall a profound sense from the Holy Spirit that I needed to go to this little boy. He needed me more than the hundreds of women at this conference. They would be well taken care of, but who would welcome this little one?

After a quick phone call to my husband and a bit of a longer conversation with my ministry partner who I left stranded at the conference, we said yes. I turned back around to head to the hospital to pick up this precious baby boy who we had the privilege of parenting for the first five months of his life.

Noah’s story is one that represents the children in our community who every week, are being removed from their parents due to allegations of abuse and neglect. Where will they go? Who will welcome them? Who will see them and move toward them in love? Who will speak life and blessing and pray over their parents? 

What if God is inviting you to open your arms to a child in foster care, whether that child is a baby, a teenager, siblings in elementary school, or a pregnant teen mum? 

Noah’s life started, right off the bat, with the odds stacked against him. Perhaps some of you are aware of the incredibly jarring reality that children who experience foster care are more likely to struggle with addiction, homelessness, or get into trouble with the law. They are heartbreakingly vulnerable to being trafficked and sexually exploited because the foster care system is seen as a pipeline for recruitment. This is how Noah’s little life began. But there is so much hope for a different story. 

Every number has a name. Every name has a story. Every story matters to God. 

Little Noah was with us for five months. Sadly his mum was not able to parent him but he had a loving aunt and uncle who welcomed him into their family. He is an amazing little boy, almost 10 years old and thriving.

Handing him into the arms of his aunt was every bit as heartbreaking as you might imagine. Saying goodbye after loving him, I wailed when he left, but it was so worth it, to be a safe place; a part of the redemptive story God is longing to write as we, His children, live our lives with arms wide open.

As a foster carer myself, I get calls nearly every day for kids needing families. Just two weeks ago, I was preparing to speak at a church, and I got a call for a seven-year-old little girl needing a family to welcome her. A few minutes later, as my husband was making dinner and playing some worship music, the song “Good Good Father” came on and I just lost it.

Through all of this, God has broken our hearts wide open for the kids in foster care in our neighbourhoods in need of loving homes, and I want to invite you to be a part of what He is doing.

A couple of ways you can respond specifically to the invitation into the lives of kids experiencing foster care:

We need more families to step into fostering. Please know that when I say foster “family”, I mean anyone who says yes to welcoming a child into their safe and loving home. This can be someone who is single and maybe has never been a parent, someone who is an empty-nester and has lots of experience with raising children, or a young family with an energetic home. There is no “one size fits all” for what a foster family looks like or the kind of love and support it can provide. 

(Check out the Foster Care: First Steps resource to explore this further). 

We also need people to wrap around these foster families with practical, emotional and spiritual support. Fostering is challenging and nationwide many are leaving the system (while fewer are signing up). But this is the power of a support team! Can you help share the burden and the joy of the fostering journey? Can you bring a meal once or twice a month? Can you help with transportation? Can you pray? Can you send encouraging texts? Can you build bunkbeds and put together IKEA dressers? (Check out the Wrap-around Team material to explore this further). 


This story has been shared by Christine Ingebretson as part of a message she preached in her role with Foster The City, who are equipping churches to provide loving homes for children in foster care in California and beyond.

Other Resources

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  • Yāṯôm part five: Don’t forget where you came from

  • Yāṯôm part four: The promise that makes all the difference

  • Yāṯôm part three: You are being lied to (the truth about who is truly blessed)

  • Three simple ways your church can make a difference in Out-of-Home Care this year

  • Yāṯôm part two: I couldn’t believe what I found

  • Foster Care: Leaving a legacy

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