Seeing Fruit

This weekend we got to have a very sweet visit with some of our very favorite kids in the universe.  Mena and Cassandra lived with us from September 2008 through June 2009, and we love these girls somethin’ fierce.  Luckily, they also have two incredible siblings who we’ve gotten to build relationships with too.  The girls ended up being adopted by their aunt and uncle, and we’ve made a strong effort to keep in contact.  They speak almost exclusively Spanish – but we muddle through conversations and try our hardest to get to know them.

I cannot tell you what a blessing it is to get to stay in contact with them.  It is one of the only fostering situations where we continue to get to see the fruit of fostering.  We get to watch four beautiful kids grow up, we get to hear excited squeals when they find out we’re coming to visit, and we get to be a faithful source of love and consistency for them.  What. a. blessing.

We picked the kids up and went to the park.  We barbequed for dinner, played around the lake, played on the playground, and had a few good rounds of hide and seek.  On the way home we picked up some ice cream, and when it was time to drop them off we got questions of when the next time we could visit would be.

 

 

 

 

 

It’s been four months since we’ve gotten to see the kids, and we were a little bit afraid that Mena wouldn’t remember us because she’s so little.  But when we got there she lit up and was attached to us at the hip the whole visit.  When I mentioned to her uncle that we were afraid she wouldn’t remember us, he replied, “Oh, no.  She is always going around the house saying ‘Maggie? Maggie?’.”  Melts my heart.

When the girls left our home we were so worried.  We were afraid for their safety and for their future.  But it is clear that they are just where they should be!  They are happy and healthy.  Just goes to show that sometimes (ha!) God knows better than we do.  I’m so happy to get to keep in contact with these four.  I can’t wait to go to Cassandra’s graduation, see Jose driving for the first time, see Mena start school.

As we’re feeling a bit gun shy after our experience with the boys, I keep reminding myself what blessings we have encountered because of fostering.  I would not in a million years give up the relationship we have with these kids and their family.  It is when you get to see the fruit of fostering that you are assured that it is all worth it.