Did I ever tell you the story of when I cried like a baby waiting to meet Aladdin and Jasmine at Disney World?
It had been a long few weeks of foster care. We had left our foster son of two plus years in respite because we never imagined he would still be in care by the time the trip rolled around. We planned the trip for our core family, and to spend time with our forevers. The afternoon before we left there was a phone call. Basically he was going to leave foster care while we were gone. We wouldn't be there. Suddenly it was our last night together. Devastating sums it up. We said our goodbyes in the driveway of a dear foster mom friend. I was afraid I would never see her house the same way.
And then by craziness of this life he didn't leave. Waiting in line to meet Mickey we found out we had a few more weeks.
Fast forward a couple of more days. Tired from several days of all the magic of Disney World, and feeling torn with one of "my" kids back at home it happened. We wanted to meet Aladdin and Jasmine. The line wasn't bad, so we decided we would wait.
These two were a great pair. They were perfectly in character. They were playing off of each other, and the people they were meeting. It was a lighthearted time. And then I started crying. They were treating each child (and teenager and adult) as if they were the only child there. They were noticing details about the child, and asking or commenting. They were treating each child as a precious child. I couldn't hold back the emotions of the past several weeks of foster care anymore.
You see that's what foster parents try to do every day. We try to show a child, that likely has been convinced they are not precious, that on the contrary they are extremely precious. And unlike those dressed up fictional characters who are pretending to be princes and princesses there is a true King who knows just how precious they are. He knows because He made them, He loves them, He died for them. And I have the beautiful privilege of introducing them to Him.
It was all too much and too overwhelming for this momma's heart. So I just stood in line and quietly cried.
They are precious in his sight.
