So––What's your ending?
I sent a message on Facebook and Twitter asking those who may know something about the foster care system to contact me. Then I searched around on Facebook and found a veritable treasure trove of information. There's:
Everyone Has A Story
What's your ending? What story are you telling with the millions of details that weave the fabric of your waking hours? I urge you to consider what your choices today are telling others right now, and what they are creating for the futures of everyone around you. Your choices are not just about you! As a youth minister and minister and father and husband and friend and follower of Jesus Christ, I've watched my own choices (and the choices of those around me) leave marks on, and form decisions of, those they've touched––both good and bad.
You don't want your kids to say they don't want to be like you when they grow up, or tell a friend or teacher you beat their other parent because they lack the filter adults develop. You don't want your kids to crash and burn in adulthood because they learned to be a liar by watching you. You don't want to read about a foster kid you could have taken in, or an older kid you could have adopted, dying or killing someone else or changing someone else's life for the better because you failed to act when you felt the urge to do something... but did nothing instead. I've heard these stories from broken kids that are, nevertheless, amazing! I've heard them from broken adults who've gone on to do amazing things. I've been challenged by lives that have touched me to change the lives of others.
Break The Cycle
- Share your story––I need those connected with the foster care system to reach out to me: foster care kids or parents or workers, with real stories that are good and bad. Please contact me through my website, on Facebook, on Twitter, or email me and we will set up a time to talk. Nothing is too boring, or too raw, to have an impact on these novels. I don't want to write something that reads like a manual, but something a foster kid could read––as they're going through it or as an adult––and say, "Whoa, I've said that! I've felt that! I faced that too!" I don't want to just tell the story in my head. I want to tell the story that's in your head, mixed with fantasy, and leave you with the hope to continue!
- Share this post––You may not have a foster care story to share, but might know someone who does! Just as when counseling others, the ministerial confidentiality for you (or any of your friends who share with me) is iron-clad (except in cases where you may be a danger to yourself, others, or give me express permission to share your story under a different name). The point of these fiction novels is not to tell a foster care story where I share every sordid detail you divulge, but to craft the emotional climate of many characters that will lead every reader to have hope and dreams for a better tomorrow. I can't promise I'll use what you share, but it will certainly shape my characters!
- Share yourself––Sometimes our feelings can deceive us but I assure you, you matter and you are not an accident! This world is better for having you in it, and I believe that for everyone who walks this earth. I also know we can make some pretty horrible decisions, but we can just as easily learn to make decisions that are good for us all. We can't do that apart from each other though. We can't hate each other and produce anything that gives life.
So I encourage you in the story you've got to tell. Like the rest of us, you're figuring it out as you go along. The twists and turns could lead us here or there, be right or wrong, bring pain or peace, but none of it means that you personally are a mistake! God, my friend, does not make mistakes, and you are made in His image. So join with me to break the cycle of abuse and mistrust and hatred, and restore our hope for the future.
We'll all die one day, some sooner than others. Are you ready? What will you leave behind?
What's your ending?
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