Sitting with Families In a Stormy Season

Aah! April! It teases us with sunshine and drenches us in precipitation (at least in a good year). We love the hope that rain and snow bring: the green, the new growth, the flowing rivers and filled-up reservoirs, all waiting for us on the other side of the puddles and drifts. Sometimes it’s hard to embrace hope in the middle of a storm.

​At times, that's what being a foster or adoptive family is like. There's so much hope for growth and restoration. Simultaneously there’s trauma behaviors, uncertainty, and feelings of isolation. During a season of grief and loss, a Project 1.27 kinship parent recently shared that she didn’t need encouragement, she just needed to know people were sitting with her. This is where YOU come in as “her” support team. You don’t need all the answers, sometimes the family you're supporting just wants someone to pull up a chair and sit.

Here are some meaningful responses to offer when you “sit” with your foster family in a season of showers:

• I’m here with you.
• It’s ok to feel what you feel.
• This is really hard.
• Tell me about it.
• That was really scary, sad, unfair, etc.
• I’m listening.
• I’m close, you can find me when you’re ready.
• You don’t have to process this all at once.
• If you don’t feel your best today, allow yourself that space.
• Thank you for sharing this with me. 
• Say nothing. Just be there and listen. 
• Let’s pray together for strength to face this.

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Isaiah 40:31 “But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”