We hear often as foster moms that we are supposed to be a good advocate. Your child depends on you. Don’t be afraid to go to bat for them. Don’t drop the ball. If you don’t do it, who will. (No pressure at all!)
Right now it feels like I am single-handedly carrying my foster son’s entire medical journey in a massive filing system in my brain. I have learned more medical terms and met more medical professionals in the last two years than the entire 35 years of my life before that. There is a team of nine of us who work together on this case to support parents and make sure our little guy is taken care of, but who sends the 500 word count update emails and remembers appointments and schedules a second opinion at a new hospital? Me. That would be me.
I’m just the foster mom, but the responsibility of advocate is weighty. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve cried myself to sleep, worrying that I’ve messed it up for him or missed something or so frustrated with myself when maybe it feels like I didn’t do enough.
That’s when I take a deep breath and try to remind myself that Jesus carries even this. He sees me. He sees my little man. He knows I’m trying to do the best that I can. And it will all be okay in the end because Jesus is our little guy’s [uppercase] Advocate.
Dear foster mom, you’re doing a good job. God sees you advocating with all your heart as if they were your own. God knows the burden you carry. But don’t take on the weight of what is only meant for Him. Your child is truly safe in God’s hands, not yours. Work hard as though working for the Lord (Col. 3:23) and may the burden be transformed into one that is actually light (Matt. 11:30) because Jesus carries it for you.