Our family is a true testament of faith. My husband Steven and I have been married for 10 years and on any given day we have 6 children aging birth to 21. Having fostered since 2016 we are continually humbled by God’s faithfulness we experience through the support of our community. Long before our daughter was born we thought about school and the importance of an education that fits the child. As parents focused on being intentional, we moved in 2018 to be in one of the “good districts” with high performance. Discussions as she grew were about school choice and how to make other options accessible to our daughter and our other children as our family grew.
In 2021 we adopted our first foster placement who has overcome many obstacles in his short life. In 2023 we anticipate adopting our second placement who also has special needs and yet is thriving! We did not intend to adopt but this is where God has led us and we continue to follow.
Due to the special needs of our children I have had to reduce my work to attend numerous therapies, medical appointments, court dates and social worker visits. On any given day we have 6 children in our house, most if not all of them having special needs. It was an obvious choice to pursue our mission of supporting vulnerable children and their families even if it meant doing more with less.
This last fall our daughter began to struggle in second grade. It became clear to us that she needed a smaller class setting, more hands-on instruction and a new approach. She needed the benefit that could only come from a private school. Knowing that our family continues to grow as children need loving families, we weren’t sure how to financially make the switch as we want all of our children to have the same caliber and individualized education. With the assistance of Learning to Serve we were able to move our struggling daughter to private. In the smaller class setting of ten coupled with the creative learning environment and less transitions she is thriving! She’s now happy to attend school daily and is rebuilding her self-esteem.
As a foster parent we are always balancing the needs of “our children” both biological and adopted coupled with that of our foster children. We are grateful for Learning to Serve for partnering with us so that all our children can access the individualized education they need. As we continue to step out on faith, we are partnering with this private school to also accept our teenage foster children when they are in our home long term. This is something that would be undeniably impossible without this support and is actively changing the projection of a life.
Read our next Impact Story here:
“Your son is dyslexic and we don’t have the resources to support him.” – Learning to Serve
