Our oldest boys, Manny and AJ, arrived at our home late on a Friday night. They came with one small backpack containing ill-fitting pajamas and a single diaper each. Hidden at the bottom of the bag were two worn and tattered children’s books. Amid the uncertainty and fear that accompanied this big transition for the boys, these stories offered an opportunity for connection. After tucking the boys into their new and unfamiliar beds, I sat on the floor between them and read the books aloud.  On that very first day of our foster care journey, we discovered how to share words and connect with our kids through stories. AJ and Manny came to us drowning in a sea of confusing,

“When our son came to us through foster care, he was three years old—and his first language was Spanish. Because there wasn’t a Spanish-speaking family available, he was placed in our home. We have many strengths as a family, but speaking Spanish isn’t one of them! Looking back, I can only imagine how overwhelming it must have been for him—on top of the trauma of being separated from his biological mother, he suddenly found himself in a home with different food, different music, a different rhythm of life, and a language he didn’t understand. I had taken quite a bit of Spanish in college, and I remember praying, “Lord, bring back every word of Spanish I’ve ever learned!” I quickly

Our family is big on the outdoors—camping, hiking, fishing, and exploring the unknown. It’s easy to see God with us when we are in his creation and enjoying things that are beautiful. The journey into foster care…has been a different kind of adventure. This time, the unknown has seemed less exciting and way more scary. We welcomed our first foster child into our home almost two years ago. It has been a time of many happy moments, but also grief and a hard like we’ve never experienced before. Everything has been new and we’ve had to learn (fast!) how to organize so much paperwork, understand court and all the people involved, and juggle visits. But more than all that, the