A little over a year ago, after a whirlwind of getting struck by lightening, selling our house, getting a new car, almost being homeless and thankfully buying a new house, I finally stopped long enough to think to myself “now we have a minivan and a five bedroom house, I think God has something planned for us that involves children.”  Fast forward to October, when we heard a presentation about Safe Families.  Safe Families “is a national movement of compassion that gives hope to families in crisis.”   Host families take care of kids for an average of 21 days for parents who are homeless, during a short term hospitalization, or during other crisis situations.  The beautiful thing about Safe Families is the program lowers the chance of child abuse and also prevents children from being placed in foster care.  After hearing of the challenges these families face (not being able to feed their children, being evicted and not having a place to stay, facing a medical crisis and not having anyone they trust to take care of their children), I knew we had to say yes.

After several months of finishing up some house projects, preparing a space for more kids, completing our training and home study, and various other tasks to prepare, we were approved to be a host family and will be hosting our first family starting this weekend.  Though I am anxious about how our kids will do, how I will handle extra kids, and how long it will take us to get out the door in the morning, I’m so excited to see how God will use us in the lives of the kids and the parents.

You can learn more about Safe Families of Indiana here.  They are always looking for host families and other volunteers.