FOSTERING EMMY PERSONAL ESSAY words by Adria Church and images by Savan Crutchfield
My husband and I got married after a year of dating and were madly in love. About 9 months in and still in the full swing of the honeymoon stage, we were camping, hiking, traveling and enjoying life, when we were stopped in our tracks. Oddly enough, my husband and I never really talked about kids and when that would happen. He was one of 7 and I was one of 3, so we both knew we wanted a family, but never went into much detail other than that. Out of nowhere, I started to hear the words “foster care” over and over and over. It was like I couldn’t get away from it. Our church was randomly having an informational meeting, and it was all over the radio. I had also recently met a foster family. I thought it was really odd. I knew something was going on, but I didn’t say a word to Colt, and I didn’t know where to start. We had only been married 9 months after all, and he was going to think I was CRAZY! I decided to gather more information. I really had zero idea of what foster care looked like, aside from keeping other peoples’ kids when the state removed them. I had a dear friend and neighbor who had coincidentally gotten her degree in social work, so we spent a good long time on her couch talking about all of the ins and outs. I left her house with tons of information, and a burdened heart. I sat on it for several weeks and just kept praying. I wasn’t sure what Colt would think about all of it, and I, myself, thought it was pure madness. Finally one night as we were getting into bed, I felt the tugging that it was time. I turned to Colt and said, “Babe, I know you’re going to think I’m crazy for this, but I feel like God has really been tugging my heart and I need to talk to you about it. I think God is wanting us to become foster parents.” To which he replied, “Okay, me too. Let’s do it.” We had a short conversation that night and the next day I was researching foster agencies. We quickly got licensed and a few months later had our first foster son - a 2 year old. He absolutely rocked our world, and then left to be with family after 5 months, devastating our family and us. Colt wanted to take a break to grieve, but I couldn’t stand the silence in the home and the unused toys and reminders all around us, so I begged him that we open back up. This was a team effort after all; we were either both all in, or all out. He agreed and within a week we received a call for a precious little one who had been hurt and was in the hospital to be discharged any day. I didn’t even call him because I new his answer (of course I did after the call), and I told them YES! This time, we were talking about an 8-week old baby girl, and we had nothing for a new baby!
5
