Hope and a Future

The subject of this blog is something that those of you close to me have probably heard a lot bit about: my two "foster" kids Asmin and Anderson. Facebook is filled with updates and cute little pictures of them playing, spending time with their baby sisters, passing grade after grade in school, and just being kids. However, their story is deeper than that and I want to take the opportunity to publicly say GOD IS GOOD and share the way He has cared for them, protected them, and transformed their lives.

Asmin in her home, 2013, 5 years old

Anderson, 2012, 7 years old

These two kids unexpectedly came into my life very shortly after I moved to Honduras, and they've been changing my life ever since. Both Asmin and Anderson are blessed to have a mother who genuinely does love them, but for many reasons, she is physically and emotionally unable to deal with everything on her plate. Both were very malnourished, never put in school, and were most always found running shoeless up and down the dangerous streets of Los Pinos. But, God. He was working in their lives and in my life for many years to bring us all together, and I began actually seeing it once they began to live with me. 

I've seen kids who in the beginning, would not eat more than a small bowl of cereal per day transform into healthy, growing children. 

Kids who were not going to receive any kind of education are now studying in a bilingual school, looking forward to going to high school and college. 

Kids who were never taught any discipline or responsibility are learning how to be obedient, respectful, and good examples for their younger siblings and family. 

I see God freeing Asmin from overwhelming anger and frustration, likely due to her past in a volatile household.

I see and fully believe that God will heal Anderson from the abuse he suffered at the hands of a man he trusted. 

I see kids with a bigger future than joining a gang to survive in their community, or looking for love and protection in all the wrong places and ending up a parent while they're still children themselves. 

Instead of being a burden in their own home, they are now allowed to be children, loved and cared for. They are clean, healthy, and happy!

They maintain a healthy relationship with their mom, grandma, and three other sisters, and even had the opportunity to meet and connect with their father, who for the past 5 years had essentially ignored their existence. 

God has transformed their lives, and for that I am so thankful. They don't see it now, but they do see to some extent what they have been given. They worry about their little sisters, pray they have enough to eat, worry when they know the baby girls are left home alone with no one to care for them, and get super excited when we bring in food or milk to them. They see the difference in what they have and what they had. 

One of my favorite verses, and one I come back to over and over again in ministry here is Jeremiah 29:11 - 

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you,  plans to give you hope and a future."

I've seen even in my few years of ministry how this verse, how this "hope and a future," can be so different for each one of God's children. For some it is freedom from abuse, some it is physical healing. Some people see this hope as they break the cycle of poverty by becoming educated. Some people move towards a hopeful future thanks to a God given community of support sent to surround them. Some escape violent situations to see a future of life instead of death. 

All of these things are very obvious examples of God's blessings on our lives, but the one "hope and future" we all have in common is not one of God's blessings, but it is God himself. He is our hope and our eternal future. He is Asmin's hope and eternal future. He is Anderson's hope and eternal future. 

As their foster mom, I do my best to make a healthy, happy, Godly home for them. I will pour everything I have into them until God says differently! We are a bit of a funny little family, mixing cultures, languages, and coming from wildly different pasts. Everything we are and everything we do is thanks to God's grace on our home. I am so thankful that God has rescued and cared for both of these precious children, and that He has allowed me to be a part of it. But the best gift He has for them is not a great education, a full stomach, or even a loving household. He is everything good in their lives. And if the great lengths He's gone to to save them and transform their lives is any indication, I'd say He's got some pretty big plans for them in His Kingdom!