Let It Be for Good: A Story of Repeated Brokenness and Renewal with Ordinary People Being Used in Extraordinary Circumstances

By Martha Gilreath

As Christians we are called to care for widows and children. Most people feel an innate need to care for others that are hurting whether they are Christian or not. However, the need and urgency for more foster parents is a universal problem in the world today.

In fact, the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System states that a foster child enters the system every two minutes, with most children being removed from homes due to neglect and abuse.

With about 384,000 congregations in the United States, if each one took on the task of taking care of just one child in foster care, the overwhelming problem would be eased.

In this memoir and call to action, the author shares how her family became a certified foster family in 2012. She reveals what they’ve learned and how their life has changed in astounding ways by welcoming more than forty children into their home.

Her testimony gives a realistic view of the challenges and rewards that go along with being a foster parent. It will inspire Christians thinking about being foster parents to make an educated decision about taking such an important step – and remind existing foster parents of why their mission is so important.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Archway Publishing
• Release date: Apr 27, 2020
• ISBN: 9781480888951

Martha Gilreath

Gilreath is a wife and mother of four beautiful children and a daughter-in-law. She has welcomed more than forty children into her home over her last seven years as a foster parent. Each one has grown and deepened her family in ways that they never saw coming. She is an educator with a masters in Guidance and Counseling.She enjoys reading, serving in her church, and spending time with family on the farm.

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ISBN: 978-1-4808-8894-4 (sc)

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2020903933

Archway Publishing rev. date: 07/24/2020

To my family,

who have been willing to put themselves

on the line for the least of these.

CONTENTS

Preface

Chapter 1     I Want To Be A Hero

Chapter 2     I Am Sorry With My Whole Heart

Chapter 3     Regret

Chapter 4     Broken Pieces Still Work

Broken Crayons Still Color

Chapter 5     It Takes A Village

Chapter 6     What Just Happened?

Chapter 7     Sisters Of The Heart

Chapter 8     DJJ Or Us

Chapter 9     Stranded

Chapter 10   The Last Hoorah

Epilogue

PREFACE

"The problem with the world is that we

draw the circle of our family too small."

—Mother Teresa

As our nation struggles with escalating drug use our children are becoming staggering statistics in the foster care arena. Parents are being sucked under by addiction while our children end up living in unsafe homes where loved ones are not meeting their basic needs. More than four hundred thousand children are in foster care in the United States, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. The Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System states that a foster child enters the system every two minutes. Wow! Those are astounding statistics when you think that each number represents an innocent child. Most children are removed due to neglect and abuse, with drug use being a common culprit. When a child goes into protective custody, it is a real struggle to find placement for him or her. A huge need for foster parents exists. Foster parents are adults that have proven to be capable of providing a safe home for children that are temporarily removed from their own homes. Case works and intake workers call one possibility after the other only to hear that foster homes are full or any number of other excuses for hours on end. Many times, the children end up in an overcrowded children’s home or waiting in an office for hours on end. Many of our state workers fighting for the children are overwhelmed and underappreciated as they contest an ongoing battle where few victories are celebrated. The burnout rate is high in these professions, which makes the battle for the children even worse than ever as there is no consistency in the people on their team working together to decide and lay out the best plan for each child. Courts are backed up due to the volume of cases. Adoptions and/or reunifications take way longer than they should. It is a frustrating system that can become so focused on the paperwork that children become numbers, and cases are prolonged at the mercy of the court system. The children become victims again and again as everyone struggles to stretch a frail system and make it cover more than it can possibly take care of effectively.

What can we do to help? What can you do to help? In the Christian faith we know that Jesus stated that the greatest commandment is found in the Gospels. Mark 12:30–31 states, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these. In the book of James, we are told to take care of widows and orphans. There are plenty of orphans and neighbors that as Christians we are called to help. There are a reported 240 million Christians in the United States. Christianity Today states that there are somewhere around 384,000 congregations in the United States. If each church undertook one child in foster care, we could provide for the least of these in unimaginable healthy ways. A certain few can’t keep doing it alone. We need second shift. We need backup! I kept imagining a game of tag as I fostered for seven years. I am tired of running and would like to tag the next person to be It.

The goal of this book is to give you a glimpse of real children in foster care and us as real people called to love and care for them. All the names in this story are fictitious, but the stories are real. The people in this book are not perfect, nor are any of the situations. I surely don’t want to deceive anyone about the realities of caring for hurting children. It is not easy. However, it is good. If we all take a turn, it can be done with excellence and honor to our heavenly Father. It takes the removal of self and an acknowledgment to the Source of our love and strength. It entails a strong yes to God if He is calling you to take on this amazing opportunity.

For Good

Kristin Chenoweth, Idina Menzel, Stephen Schwartz, Lee Lessack

I’ve heard it said

That people come into our lives for a reason

Bringing something we must learn

And we are led

To those who help us most to grow

Who can say if I’ve been changed for the better?

But because I knew you

I have been changed for good

CHAPTER 1

I WANT TO BE A HERO

Therefore, He is able to save completely

those who come to God through him,

because he always lives to intercede for them.

—Hebrews 7:25

Who doesn’t want to be a hero? When I think of the word hero, the first things