Village Raising A Child

Our congregation over the past 7 years has been a perfect demonstration of a “village raising children.” Bart and I can’t even begin to describe the ways in which our congregation has embraced our family and helped to raise our kids. Our kids haven’t all sat with me in church, for example, for years. They each have other people they like to sit with and it’s OK with those folks. We have a long list of people who will take care of one, two, or three of our kids for up to two weeks at a time without asking for pay. We have people who watch our dog. We have people who will fix stuff when it breaks. We have people who will help decorate and people who bring us extra stuff from their gardens, or leftovers when they have too much.

And the list goes on.

I don’t know if it’s too much to expect that to happen again or to ask that of another congregation ... but it is REALLY cool when people who can see the ministry we have by adopting (and previously with foster care) and even if they can’t do it themselves, do what they can to help.

Wish every adoptive family could have the same thing and even if we never have it again, we’ll always know how the ideal felt.