A couple’s response to God’s call for fostering

In the early stages of their relationship, Aaron and Kveta both agreed they wanted to be open to what God wanted their family to look like and how it would come to be. Even though neither of them were intimately familiar with fostering and adoption, they didn’t want to close a door if God wanted to open it for them.

When Aaron went to a conference put on by a social worker who shared the need for foster parents, he came home and told Kveta they might need to consider this.

“When someone tells you about how many children are in your city that need a home, and here you’ve been kind of waiting and wondering what God was doing with that longing,” Kveta explains, “we were just like, maybe this is why he had laid this on our heart.”

When people find out Aaron and Kveta are foster parents, one thing they hear often is, “I could never do that because we wouldn’t be able to give a child back.”

As Aaron explains: “We have to remind ourselves over and over again – it’s not about us. For us to say we’re not going to enter into this area of brokenness because we don’t want to have heartache, well, somebody has to take care of this child. Somebody has to be there to do that and so I think we know as Christians that life isn’t supposed to be easy in every regard. There is a lot of dying to ourselves.”

For Kveta, part of this calling stems from her experience with an organization that ministers to people living on the streets. “You just learn some of these statistics about people who are on the street – it’s like the patterns have been set in place years ago and the number of children who are in foster care who ended up on the street is really high,” she explains. “So we wanted to try to care for a child and build them up when they are young, hoping that will translate into them not being on the street when they’re older, because it’s so much about relationships and how we provide people with love and the relationship that they need.”

Aaron adds that they saw the need for this influence even when the child may not remember them as foster parents. “The first baby that we had was little and for just 10 days, and we were just a safe place which this child needed while his mom was getting something sorted out. The second kid that we had was for 14 months. He’ll never remember us, but we know it was a huge impact giving him stability for 14 months while he was developing and his parents were trying to work towards restoration. So that’s an encouraging aspect for us because sometimes you think, well, they’ll never know what you did for them. And it’s like, that’s not really what it’s about.”

While the couple acknowledges the adjustments and struggles that can come with foster parenting, they also realize the importance of answering God’s call on their lives. “There is always going to be a reason why it’s not the right time to start,” Kveta admits. “We just constantly had to surrender and say, now is a good time because it’s always a good time to be obedient to what God’s putting in your heart.”

Fostering and adoption are big decisions that come with a lot of responsibility, but we encourage you to pray and ask God for wisdom if this is the journey for you. Another way to serve in this area is to come alongside foster and adoptive families in your community, offering practical help and support. Visit WaitingToBelong.ca to learn about our ministry for foster and adoptive families in Canada.