Last week I told you what it was like to first become a foster mama and how much I loved it and knew, for probably the first time in my life, that I was really good at something. I mean that it’s the first time I allowed myself to allow, accept and receive, while I was in the act of doing, that I was really good at that thing.
On the morning of a very big birthday (a number that ended in ‘9’) I awoke, opened my eyes, and realized that I was very bored with my life. I had good friends, as secure a job as is possible, I paid my bills and had some money in the bank. I was living my life the way my parents had hoped. I was safe. I wasn’t happy. As I ate birthday cake for breakfast (I highly recommend this!) I started to think about what I really wanted in my life.
I love to travel, anywhere, anytime! I can get as much joy from investigating a little beachside alley on the central coast as a centuries-old passageway in a mountain village in Italy. I wanted to travel more than merely the two weeks’ allotted by my place of employment.
I wanted to run my own business, to own my own home so I wouldn’t have to ask permission to paint the walls any color but white, and in that moment the message that came to me so clearly was – I wanted to be a mama!
I knew that other women made different choices, and yet for me, I’d always thought first would come marriage and then a baby carriage, so I’d never even considered having a child on my own. I also knew that I might still have half my life to live and I didn’t want the second half to be as boring as the first.
With that acknowledgement I sat bolt upright in bed and shouted, “From now on I’m not worrying about everybody else, from now on I’m doing it MY way!” All-righty then. Now, how to proceed?
I had always done a lot of volunteering with children’s organizations – Sunday afternoon art projects with little ones, Monday night story telling and play writing with teens, and the thing all these kids had in common was, they were all in the foster care system. THAT made sense to me. There are so many kids who need safe, stable, loving homes and I had that to give. And so I began to begin.
May is National Foster Awareness Month. If you have ever considered becoming a foster mama I would love to help you in your journey! And if someone you know has considered it, please forward this to her, ‘cause I’d love to help her, too!
What if it’s time for you to provide a safe, loving home for a child who needs and deserves one? What if it’s time for you to become a foster mama?
Right now, take a moment and affirm for yourself:
As I grow to love myself more than ever I expand to love others even more!