-PDF Download- Help Im A Foster Parent Experiences From Real People Hope From A Real God EBOOK

Help! I'm a Foster Parent: Experiences from Real People. Hope from a Real God.

Author: Nikki Hertzler

Publisher: Ambassador International

Published: 2023-05-02

Total Pages: 122

ISBN-13: 1649604599

Foster families are unsung heroes, willing to stand on the front lines for children who can’t stand up for themselves. But fostering can also be a lonely journey as friends and family members pull away from the fear of the unknown. We all have a job to do, and it starts by stepping forward and wrapping around those who are sacrificing so much. In Help! I’m a Foster Parent: Experiences From Real People. Hope From a Real God., Nikki Hertzler has compiled the stories of foster families and others who are in the trenches—loving, advocating, and fighting for children who have found themselves displaced from their biological families. Their poignant, transparent stories will help you get a glimpse into the true realities of fostering, discuss ways to support these families, and encourage others on their own foster journey through a daily prayer, Scripture, and reflection. Endorsements These stories from foster and adoptive moms will be an encouragement to other foster and adoptive moms. This is hard, hard work. These stories remind us of our humanity, God’s greatness, that we are not alone, and how desperately we all need Him. Trisha Porter Backyard Orphans Anyone who steps into the fostering system sooner or later realizes how broken and dark it is. For fostering families, the road is often frustrating and lonely. For the children in foster care, the emotions are so much more than that. That is why we need a book like this. Discouragement is always close by, and the emotions and feelings run deep. But families are not alone. We all need to be encouraged to persevere in the messiness, to love the children who didn’t ask for this, to encourage biological parents about whom few care—to be a light in the darkness. Pastor Derek Parker, Lead Pastor Starkey Road Baptist Church, Seminole, Florida As someone who has never fostered, I found the stories in Help! I’m a Foster Parent powerful. The genuine emotion of each devotion is heartfelt. Honestly, the experiences provoked in me a deeper empathy and support for the brave parents who choose to open their homes. But the book provides so much more. It honestly relates to the foster parents’ many challenges and offers understanding, camaraderie, encouragement, and hope. This book is a must-read for those desiring a deeper understanding of God’s command to care for the needy and the orphans. Lauren Crews Author of Strength of a Woman: Why You Are Proverbs 31

Keep the Doors Open

Author: Kristin Berry

Publisher: Harvest House Publishers

Published: 2020-01-07

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 0736976701

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Will You Open Your Heart and Home to Children in Need? As a teenager, Kristin Berry had heard all the horror stories surrounding foster care and adoption—abuse, neglect, rejection, anger, and misunderstandings. But instead of closing her heart, God opened it wide. This is Kristin’s honest, unvarnished story of some of her experiences as a foster parent of twenty-three children over the course of nine years. What she learned is that living in a foster home is like living with a revolving door. You never know who will arrive or who you will have to say goodbye to. Leaving the door open means there will be heartache and pain, but also adventure and unexpected joy. Kristin and her husband, Mike, have been through it all in their unique parenting journey. If you have ever wondered what it’s really like to be a foster parent, this book will help you gain a true understanding of the everyday trials and triumphs these moms and dads face. It will also inspire you to consider opening your door…and to leave it wide open.

Reframing Foster Care: Filtering Your Foster Parenting Journey Through the Lens of the Gospel

Author: Jason Johnson

Publisher: Credo House Publishers

Published: 2018-01-15

Total Pages: 266

ISBN-13: 9781625860958

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Foster parents face a unique set of circumstances and experience a wide array of emotions that few can relate to. Their journey is one of equal parts beauty and brokenness, joy and heartache, excitement and exhaustion. There is no textbook on how to be a foster parent, no formula, no simple three-step guide. But there is hope-in God's capacity to bring great beauty out of tragic brokenness. This is the gospel-the lens through which you can filter your foster parenting journey and ultimately find the strength, motivation, and courage you need to be sustained along the way. ReFraming Foster Care is a collection of reflections on the foster parenting journey designed to help you do just that-find hope-and to remind you that your work is worth it and you are not alone. This multi-faceted book can be read alone or used as a group support resource. Every chapter includes: Personal reflection questions Group discussion guides Plan of action exercises Real-life stories Inspirational quotes Whether your foster parenting journey has just begun or you've been on the road for quite some time, we pray this book can encourage, challenge, and inspire you along the way. For bulk orders of 10 or more books, visit www.reframingfostercare.com. Discounts apply.

Foster the Family

Author: Jamie C. Finn

Publisher: Baker Books

Published: 2022-02-15

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 149343442X

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There are great rewards that come along with being a foster parent, yet there are also great challenges that can leave you feeling depleted, alone, and discouraged. The many burdens of a foster parent's day--hurting children, struggling biological parents, and a broken system--are only compounded by the many burdens of a foster parent's heart--confusion, anxiety, heartache, anger, and fear. With the compassion and insight of a fellow foster parent, Jamie C. Finn helps you see your struggles through the lens of the gospel, bringing biblical truths to bear on your unique everyday realities. In these short, easy-to-read chapters, you'll find honest, personal stories and practical lessons that provide encouragement and direction from God's Word as you walk the journey of foster parenting.

Raising Other People's Children

Author: Debbie Ausburn

Publisher: Hatherleigh Press

Published: 2021-05-25

Total Pages: 134

ISBN-13: 1578269008

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Raising Other People's Children helps you navigate the complicated world of foster and step-parenting with better awareness and greater empathy, providing real-life solutions for forging strong relationships in extraordinary circumstances. Drawing on Debbie Ausburn’s decades of experience with every facet of the foster care system, Raising Other People's Children provides expert guidance viewed through the lens of real human interactions. The responsibility and complexity involved in raising someone else’s child can seem overwhelming. Regardless of whether you’re a stepparent, foster parent or adoptive parent, it is on you to take on the challenge of caring for them, helping them to move forward while also meeting their unique emotional needs.

Don't Mom Alone

Author: Heather MacFadyen

Publisher: Revell

Published: 2021-10-12

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 1493431978

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Being a good mom isn't about doing everything right to create a set of perfect trophy children--though every mom has felt the pressure to do just that and to do it all on her own. To ask for help feels like defeat. Yet when we try to do it all by our own strength, we end up depleted, lonely, and ineffective. Heather MacFadyen wants you to know that you are not meant to go it alone. Sharing her most vulnerable, hard mom moments, she shows how moms can be empowered by God, supported by others, and connected with their children. With encouragement and insight, she helps you foster the key relationships you need to be the mom you want to be. Whether you work or stay home, whether you have teenagers or babes in arms, you'll find here a compassionate friend who wants the best--not just for your kids but for you.

The Lucky Few

Author: Heather Avis

Publisher: Zondervan

Published: 2017-03-21

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 0310345499

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When life looks radically different than the plan we have for ourselves, it's the lucky few that recognize God's plan is best. That's what adoptive mom Heather Avis learned, and that's the invitation of this book. As the mother of three adopted children - two with Down syndrome - Heather Avis has learned that it's truly the lucky few who get to live a life like hers, who actually recognize that God's plans are best, even when they seem so radically different from the plans we have for ourselves. When Heather started her journey into parenthood she never thought it would look like this, never planned to have three adopted children, and certainly never imagined that two of them would have Down syndrome. But like most things God does, once she stepped into the craziness and confusion that comes with the unknown and the unplanned, she realized that they were indeed among the lucky few. Discover in this book what 70,000+ followers of Heather's hit Instagram account @macymakesmyday already know: the power of faith and family can help us stay strong in the toughest times. This book will also be especially touching to those with adopted family members or children with Down syndrome in their lives.

To the End of June

Author: Cris Beam

Publisher: HMH

Published: 2013-08-13

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 0547999534

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A New York Times Notable Book that “casts a searing eye on the labyrinth that is the American foster care system” (NPR’s On Point). Who are the children of foster care? What, as a country, do we owe them? Cris Beam, a foster mother herself, spent five years immersed in the world of foster care looking into these questions and tracing firsthand stories. The result is To the End of June, an unforgettable portrait that takes us deep inside the lives of foster children in their search for a stable, loving family. Beam shows us the intricacies of growing up in the system—the back-and-forth with agencies, the rootless shuffling between homes, the emotionally charged tug between foster and birth parents, the terrifying push out of foster care and into adulthood. Humanizing and challenging a broken system, To the End of June offers a tribute to resiliency and hope for real change. “A triumph of narrative reporting and storytelling.” —The New York Times “[A] powerful . . . and refreshing read.” —Chicago Tribune “A sharp critique of foster-care policies and a searching exploration of the meaning of family.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) “Heart-rending and tentatively hopeful.” —Salon

Grumpy Mom Takes a Holiday

Author: Valerie Woerner

Publisher: Tyndale Momentum

Published: 2019

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 1496435303

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Woerner has experienced Grumpy Mom more often than she'd care to admit. She shares what she's learned so far about sending Grumpy Mom packing and embracing a joyful, intentional motherhood that is so much better.

Another Place at the Table

Author: Kathy Harrison

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2004-05-24

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 1585422827

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The startling and ultimately uplifting narrative of one woman's thirteen-year experience as a foster parent. For more than a decade, Kathy Harrison has sheltered a shifting cast of troubled youngsters-the offspring of prostitutes and addicts; the sons and daughters of abusers; and teenage parents who aren't equipped for parenthood. All this, in addition to raising her three biological sons and two adopted daughters. What would motivate someone to give herself over to constant, largely uncompensated chaos? For Harrison, the answer is easy. Another Place at the Table is the story of life at our social services' front lines, centered on three children who, when they come together in Harrison's home, nearly destroy it. It is the frank first-person story of a woman whose compassionate best intentions for a child are sometimes all that stand between violence and redemption.