Foster Care/Adoption

If stories of adoption and fostering children in Baton Rouge are of interest, there are several wonderful pieces on the website including stories of adoption (here and here), advice on what not to ask an adoptee, and a real life glimpse about what it is like to foster children in Louisiana.  Fighting to Get My Kids Back: Ashley's Story I wanted to take the opportunity to share the story of a wonderfully warm and caring Baton Rouge mom. Her name is Ashley, and several years ago, her children were removed from her care and placed in state custody. She refused to give up on her family and fought to get her kids back. Here is her story, as told by Ashley... At the time, I had...

  Being adopted as an infant, I never knew anything else. My childhood was as good as it gets, and I was loved and cared for from the moment I came home. Everyone I knew was aware that I was adopted, but as I got older, new people would make comments, and acquaintances would ask questions. I've had several hilarious conversations, and also some awkward ones, because people simply don't know what to say or how to approach the conversation if they have questions. Here's a sample of what I hear, and some help in navigating a conversation with a family choosing adoption or foster care. 1. Do your parents have any "real" children?  (or actual, legitimate, normal...) If they're real, does...

For my husband and me, adoption and foster care has always been a consideration. The reasons are too many to list here, but I will say this: In my own life, I have experienced sickness that left my body tired, my mind weary, and my spirit broken. I have also known a depth of healing that replaced my restlessness with contentment, reconciled fractured images of myself with the truth that my value is not dictated by my circumstances, and breathed wild hope into otherwise deflated, stale dreams. Also, over the course of our marriage, Isaac and I have watched some of our dearest friends navigate foster care and adoption. We observed victories in the lives of their families that,...

As a single mom to eleven and thirteen year old daughters, one thing I have found to be true is there are always two sides to every story. With that in mind, I enlisted the help of my thirteen year old daughter, Angel, to help me tell our adoption story. Jess: After watching a single mom in our church take in three little boys and walk through healing and restoration with the family, in January of 2008, my then husband and I started praying about being foster parents. We had been married for four years, just built a house, had no kids of our own and knew the Lord was stirring something in us to do more than create a life...