About a year ago as my husband and I sat in church listening to a great message the fire alarm went off in the main sanctuary. My husband and I turned to each other and grinned from ear to ear.

We both knew it was a false alarm you could say we had that parent instinct kick in. As our pastor stood at the alter and joked about how one of those wild teenagers must have not made it to their class all I could do was THANK GOD. Thank God it wasn't him. I mean I have one of those wild teenagers but I knew she would be where she was supposed to be. It was that other one…that wild little boy that loves all the buttons.

Our pastor went onto confirm that it indeed was not one of those teens and I sat at the edge of my seat dear Jesus, please dear Jesus, heelllllooooo Jesus ohh it was one of those crazy nine year olds he says where my response out loud in the middle of church was THANK YOU IT WAS NOT MY KID.

After service was done I did my normal slow walk through the sanctuary saying hi and making small talk here and there on my to go get my children. When I reached the toddler wing I was greeted by little man and that awkward smile from his teacher....you know the one.

Hey did you hear what he did???

and then I knew, it was him it was little man that had decided to set off the fire alarm.

You might wonder why I'm sharing this story with you and mainly because I want you to know this right here is my life. I never try to beauty up what foster care is or who I am as a parent. Being a foster parent you're faced with a lot of different situations and feels. While there is pain there's beauty, a lot of laughter and a lot of learning to go with the flow.

See what I've seen God do in me mostly since saying YES is trusting in Him. Trusting in the moments he provides to laugh in, cry in and build in.

I know as a mom I've gotten caught up on what others think of me. When my silent alarm goes off inside, as I get stared at because I have a row of children following behind me. Maybe little man is that toddler in the store screaming, and you wonder why I'm letting it happen or that I should control him. You don't realize that he's been at multiple visit all day which causes trauma fits because each visit triggers his past trauma and current confusion.

See foster care has allowed me to be fine being in those moments, because I know the other side of their story. What foster care has done for me is bring me stories of pain but what my God has done for me was set off alarms that remind me of his LOVE and what He's doing in each one of our stories