The Virtuous Daughter Magazine Winter 2016/17 Edition | Page 12

We also are foster parents. We had a foster daughter that was with us and we actually were very close to adoption. However, things changed fast and she left to go live with an Aunt. That was so very hard on us. We took the last year off, which was probably the best with me being pregnant and opening the store. We now have a sweet daughter who is just shy of 8 months. Yes, she was born 3 weeks after the store opened. It’ s been a crazy year! We are now emotionally feeling ready to get back into the fostering to some degree. We are going to be emergency care givers which means children will be placed with us until a permanent place can be found for them. So 3 weeks is the max that they will be in our home. 100 children a day get placed into the system a day in our county a day. So that is one way we feel God calling us to serve and give of ourselves in our community. We are godparents to 3 lovely kiddos whom we met the summer we moved out here and it has made us feel like we have family here. We have so many people surrounding us that feel like family. Our dear landlord, his wife, and their 2 sons who live in the house in front of us have made us feel like we are a part of their family. We are so blessed.

Life here has been stretching and challenging. We buried one little girl and lost 2 others. Our pastor’ s wife was tragically killed in a car accident. The emotional rollercoaster of fostering has been tough as well. Our marriage has taken hit after hit and there were times we