In this week’s episode of The Crystal Paine Show, Jesse and I share why we made the decision recently to close our home (at least for the next year or two) to fostering. It was a really difficult decision to make — and it wasn’t the decision we were expecting to make right now. But we spent a lot of time praying and had a lot of conversations and are grateful for the clear direction God gave us and the peace we have.
While the need for foster families is so great right now, we also know that loving and caring for our six children is our highest priority — despite our heart to make a difference in the lives of children in foster care. The beautiful thing we’ve learned the past few years is that there are many ways to make a difference without actively fostering.
In this episode we talk about decision-making, prioritizing, and why there are seasons for saying yes and seasons for saying no and both can be a good thing. This process of making this decision is part of what I talk about in my new book, The Time-Saving Mom: How to Juggle a Lot, Enjoy Your Life, and Accomplish What Matters Most and I close out the podcast reading a section from it.
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In This Episode
[00:36] – We are sharing about a difficult decision we made recently.
[02:23] – But first, what has been saving my life lately?
[07:57] – The story behind our decision.
[10:32] – Two of our daughters will soon be graduating.
[11:50] – Our three little ones need a lot right now.
[14:45] – Our family is currently not equipped to meet DCS’s needs of us taking in teens or large sibling groups.
[17:25] – We talk about celebrating someone’s yes and someone’s no.
[20:53] – I segue into my new book.
[21:51] – I read a section from the introduction from my book.
Links & Resources
- The Time-Saving Mom: How to Juggle a Lot, Enjoy Your Life, and Accomplish What Matters Most by Crystal Paine
- The Time-Saving Mom: How to Juggle a Lot, Enjoy Your Life, and Accomplish What Matters Most by Crystal Paine (Buy via Baker Publishing Group)
- Love-Centered Parenting: The No-Fail Guide to Launching Your Kids by Crystal Paine
- 10 Days to Be a Happier Mom
- Sign up for the Hot Deals Email List
- MoneySavingMom.com
- My Instagram account (I’d love for you to follow me there! I usually hop on at least a few times per day and share behind-the-scenes photos and videos, my grocery store hauls, funny stories, or just anything I’m pondering or would like your advice or feedback on!)
- Have feedback on the show or suggestions for future episodes or topics? Send me an email: crystal @ moneysavingmom.com
I’m curious how many kids you’re allowed to have in your home in TN. We’re fostering in TX. The most kids you can have in a regular housing situation is 6. We have 3 bio kids and 2 fosters that were hoping to adopt soon. It’s been a rough journey, but it’s been encouraging to follow your story as we go through ours. Blessings on your home and your ministry!
They have rules for getting licensed, but not limits once you are licensed. Weird but true.
We will be closing our home after our last two kiddos are adopted (by us!) later this year. We have had 6 kids through foster care. Hardest work I have ever done. It is not for the weak. Kids have been wonderful, but the system itself is AWFUL. I will be so glad to not have weekly visits from social workers.
We’ve been so grateful to have built good rapport with DCS and our workers. I know that the broken system is not their fault, so I try to give them so much grace and kindness and compassion.
You and your family were wonderful to do any amount of fostering. Not many people will do that, and sometimes t children are fostered for the wrong reasons. Sad that the system is overloaded and not your fault!
Thank you for your encouragement!
Can relate 100%. We stopped fostering after our 2nd adoption was complete, and we had 6 kids and a grandchild. Our youngest had extensive special needs. We had a strong desire to keep fostering after 10 years, but an even stronger sense that we needed to care for the six we’d been given. We also wanted to be available as new grandparents. It was a hard decision, but also easy in that it was so clearcut. Blessings to you as you love your family well. You will find many ways to support and encourage other foster parents, as we have.