Forever Changed
My girls headed back to their long term foster home last night. It was so hard to let them go BUT when I got a text 3 hours later from her telling me goodnight and that she loves us my heart was completely peaceful. I am so grateful that God brought these two little ones into our home. Because of them I will never see "teen mothers" in the same way. They will never be "those kids that made a mistake" or " bad, troubled or lost". Forever they will be people, souls, longing to be loved, needing direction but not to have their will taken.
I was and am so impressed with Ashley. She is 16, has a one year old daughter, WANTS to parent her, WANTS to have the best things for her daughter and DOES NOT expect anyone to do it for her, pay her way or "carry" them. She basically blows every stereotype out of the water. And I know that those stereotype's are there for a reason. She and I talked about this in great detail. She shared how she knows people who use the fact that they have kids to get money or as an excuse to not work. She made it clear that would not be her and I was and am so proud of her.
I was thinking this morning about the changes I saw in her from the first day to the last that she was with us. I was warned that she was the typical moody teenager, to not expect too much and just love her. Well we loved, and we loved HARD. By the 5th day we saw a young woman emerging who was engaging everyone she met, who was talking to us about life, dreams and asking questions about who God is, is there really a hell, drinking and Jesus.
I saw her begin to plan, come downstairs prepared without me having to map out what she needed for the baby. I saw her getting up every morning and getting them both ready without any prompting. She was learning how to be a mom and it didn't take nagging, hanging over her shoulder or checking everything she did. It took modeling it for her and then being willing to step back and let her take the lead... that wasn't always easy. Some days it meant we didn't have as many snacks as I thought we needed, or we didn't have a change of clothes for the baby but those things just didn't matter!!! I saw a girl becoming a woman in front of my eyes and it was beautiful!
I wanted to make the challenge that we all need to step back and see the people that are in the midst of the circumstances. Just because a young girl has a baby doesn't mean she's lazy, easy or manipulative. I was reminded this week that everyone and I do mean EVERYONE has baggage and struggles and when we are willing to look past the rough edges and find the person we find we have much more in common than we thought. Race, background, life experiences, choices, beliefs.. these all shape us and make a part of who we are but deep down I think we all want the same things.. to be loved, to matter and make a difference. We don't want to be forgotten, we want to know someone cares and THAT changes everything.
Take some time today and look a little deeper before you decide who a person is. I know I will.
Be blessed my friends!
I was and am so impressed with Ashley. She is 16, has a one year old daughter, WANTS to parent her, WANTS to have the best things for her daughter and DOES NOT expect anyone to do it for her, pay her way or "carry" them. She basically blows every stereotype out of the water. And I know that those stereotype's are there for a reason. She and I talked about this in great detail. She shared how she knows people who use the fact that they have kids to get money or as an excuse to not work. She made it clear that would not be her and I was and am so proud of her.
I was thinking this morning about the changes I saw in her from the first day to the last that she was with us. I was warned that she was the typical moody teenager, to not expect too much and just love her. Well we loved, and we loved HARD. By the 5th day we saw a young woman emerging who was engaging everyone she met, who was talking to us about life, dreams and asking questions about who God is, is there really a hell, drinking and Jesus.
I saw her begin to plan, come downstairs prepared without me having to map out what she needed for the baby. I saw her getting up every morning and getting them both ready without any prompting. She was learning how to be a mom and it didn't take nagging, hanging over her shoulder or checking everything she did. It took modeling it for her and then being willing to step back and let her take the lead... that wasn't always easy. Some days it meant we didn't have as many snacks as I thought we needed, or we didn't have a change of clothes for the baby but those things just didn't matter!!! I saw a girl becoming a woman in front of my eyes and it was beautiful!
I wanted to make the challenge that we all need to step back and see the people that are in the midst of the circumstances. Just because a young girl has a baby doesn't mean she's lazy, easy or manipulative. I was reminded this week that everyone and I do mean EVERYONE has baggage and struggles and when we are willing to look past the rough edges and find the person we find we have much more in common than we thought. Race, background, life experiences, choices, beliefs.. these all shape us and make a part of who we are but deep down I think we all want the same things.. to be loved, to matter and make a difference. We don't want to be forgotten, we want to know someone cares and THAT changes everything.
Take some time today and look a little deeper before you decide who a person is. I know I will.
Be blessed my friends!
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