What is Safe Families? II Alternative Foster Care

    I have this yearning for more in my life-like most people.   I have tried to start many different projects, rearranged the home, ventured out with creative recipes for my family, and have attempted a host of other things, but none really have stuck, and I have not been consistent with them.  I appreciate deeply the opportunity to stay home with Riley.  Motherhood is amazing, whether it be mothering biological children, adoption, or neighbor kids, but I feel my life has been called to even more.  I have this sense that motherhood is just the start of what I am supposed to be doing with my life.  Being Riley's Mama has opened my eyes up more and more to this deep well of empathy I have inside.  I fear the less I give away of the empathy, care and concern the more stagnant it becomes, the longer it takes to refill again.  I have sensed this happening for sometime now but continue to push it away and tell myself that if I cannot keep up on laundry and getting creamer, how can I really take on more?  But I know myself and I know that the more responsibility and purpose I have in my life the more I succeed and follow through and make changes.

Thus I have stumbled upon "Safe Families."  This is a company that serves as a go between for families in crises before foster care or adoption happens.  This is a temporary fostering situation with the main goal of the children or child reconnecting with their parent or parents again long term.  Many mothers and families join safe families as a better alternative than putting their kids in the system.

Hallmarks of a Safe Family Model:

• Biological Parents maintain full custody
• Volunteer families are extensively screened and supported
• Six-week average length of stay (ranging from two days to a year)
• Average age of child in SFFC care is 4.5
• Close working relationships between Safe Families, the local church, and the referring organization
• Commitment to reunite the family as soon as possible

Many of the families that join have suffered from a job loss or some sort of financial crises, or an onset of an unexpected illness.  The goal with safe families is to avert potential abuse/neglect of the child.  By providing a family that wants to care for another child in a non-threatening way, it gives the parent the ability to get back on their feet, and get their children back.

As I continue to look into this program I am falling more and more in love with their ideals and what they stand for.  Adoption is a very expensive option for us right now.  I wish it were not that way, but unfortunately it is.  Fostering never seemed to be a viable option for me because I feel untrained in many ways; but safe families seems more of a fit for me.  Right now may not be the time, but I am researching and learning more about it so that I can put myself in a position to when God opens that door, we know what to do.

For now I will continue to pray about this for our future as an option to care for 'orphans and widows,' our neighbors and friends.  We are family and need to help one another out-showing that we really are the hands and feet of Jesus.