What do you want out of this?

I think when we started fostering we were often asked what we wanted. What was our intention? We didn’t want to grow our family. We didn’t have self improvement in mind (although that definitely happened.)

For us, we felt like we had a great life and enough of it to share. We just wanted to love someone.

I think the only healthy mindset to have while fostering is being prepared to love someone—no matter what. That was our biggest take away. We learned what truly, honestly unconditional love was.

What I’m most proud of is the fact that that love has endured. J has been coming around pretty often lately. The day before his 21st birthday he allowed us to take him out to celebrate. This past weekend he brought his girlfriend over and they stayed and played games after dinner.

He’s still not “successful.” He didn’t finish high school. He’s not excelling at work. His current landlord is kicking him out at the end of the month and with his work schedule… his future housing situation does not look good. But he knows we love him. We say it often. He hugs us hello and goodbye. He knows he is welcome for dinner any time. And some day maybe he’ll listen to my advice about his education or work but until then we’ll keep loving him.

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1h8fwHaYilKYpt1fryFG1Kjsd-bWyPLzA

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1JQFk9-wXwoqsndcNuyrHIpmwLzyBl-g1

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