Welcome to Fostering Hope! by Allison Geraci
Welcome to our page! We are so happy you found us. Whether you are here just to learn more about our church and our ministry, whether you’re a foster/adoptive parent or know someone who is, or whether you are just searching for something God has put on your heart…YOU are in the right place!
Our foster and adoptive ministry, “Fostering Hope” originally began several years ago, although it didn’t look anything like it does today. As with many ministries and outreach mission groups, it all started with identifying a need.
I will never forget the morning God opened my eyes to this world and all of its heart-breaking brokenness. At the time, I had just taken on the role of Sunday School Teacher for the one-year-old crew at Fruit Cove Baptist Church (FCBC). I was searching desperately to find my place, to plug-in, and to really serve this amazing church community that I had been a part of for so long. I knew God was speaking to me. I knew this calling was for children, so this is where I started. I had two school-aged kiddos of my own and I was super eager to jump back into the baby world and get those elusive snuggles in that were starting to be less frequent with my own children. Little did I know, God wasn’t stopping there. He had bigger plans, and this would be the platform for it.
A couple of months went by… I was getting into my groove… feeling pretty good about my decision to serve…when a woman unexpectedly walked into my classroom with a young boy. I had never seen her or this child before. We navigated through the normal drop off banter but when we finished, she said, “he is our respite placement for the weekend so it will only be for today.” And as quickly as she had appeared, she had walked out and left us with this precious little boy. Respite? Did I miss something? What did that mean? I thought I had maybe missed something in my Sunday School education quarterly meeting. Our Preschool Ministries Director, Mrs. Ginna would NOT be proud. It sparked a lot of questions that continued to plague me the rest of the day. Then, it carried into the week. I wasn’t sure how to deal with this overwhelming sense of uncertainty. I couldn’t get it off my mind! Then, the following Sunday, as we were starting our day, the same woman walked back through the door with her respite placement from the weekend prior. Baby J! She said something came up and that he was with them again! Um, CRAZY! I knew this had to be a sign. When she left, I tracked her down and forced her to have coffee with me. I asked her so many questions I was sure she thought I had lost my mind and I’d never hear from her again. That was the first time I met one of my (now) best friends, Karen Roy, our Fostering Hope Ministry Leader. And this is only MY story…. One of many…
The need was there. My eyes were opened. I guess you could say I took the red pill? After that, our HUGE, expansive church community started to change shape into a much smaller, very intimate community: Who was fostering? Who wanted to foster? Who had adopted? Who was going through training courses to be a foster/adoptive parent? We ALL had so many questions and yearned so deeply for fellowship with like minded people. It wasn’t long until we had an amazing group of families that rallied behind each other. We supported each other as we navigated through the storm that ensues when you step into the broken world of foster care. Next thing we knew? Our community was growing…exponentially….We started planning monthly dinner dates at Panera to get out and talk about our families, our cases, our fears, our doubts, and to most importantly, pray for each other and the children. The need was so evident! These children NEEDED loving Christian homes, but these families NEEDED support themselves to carry through this emotional, soul-testing journey. Our mission then became focused on the “How?” How do we support these families and in-turn, better serve these foster/adoptive children and their biological families?
How were we going to offer support to foster and adoptive parents? To their bio families? Not only in our church, but in our community? We knew we wanted to start small with accomplishable goals and we knew we could immediately provide prayer. When we reached out to our church, the support was honestly overwhelming. The prayer ministry welcomed our prayer requests with open arms. They even requested weekly updates…. not only from our church members, but from community families! And our church didn’t stop there. Our Family and Missions Pastor, Johnathan Wilson, quickly and eagerly jumped on board! He knew we didn’t have to travel far to reach those in need. Our mission field was right in our backyard. And it was huge…
After the church’s full backing, things literally took off and RAPIDLY grew momentum in a shockingly short period of time. What started as a monthly get-together between foster parent friends quickly snow-balled into a full-blown ministry, serving our own church families as well as those in our surrounding areas. It is nothing short of a miraculous display of God’s handiwork, as he laid the groundwork for this ministry to take flight.
We created an advisory board consisting of past and present foster and adoptive parents as well as a Guardian Ad Litem to help guide the ministry, lay a foundation, and maintain focus on our mission. What better way to start a ministry than through those that have walked the path?! This then led to spreading the word! We formalized our monthly meetings and were provided space on campus at FCBC. We also created a Facebook page to provide a platform to share meetings, provide encouragement and prayer, and to engage the community. Within a few short months, our group was now a ministry! Fostering Hope was born and was now a fully operational ministry with a focus on outreach and support not only within our church home, but within the surrounding community of Northeast Florida. We created a “closet” to store essential items, clothing, bedding, diapers, formula, you name it….all to support foster children in care. We started to become well known in the community as we worked diligently to partner with local agencies, neighboring churches and foster/adoptive minded businesses. It wasn’t long before we realized we needed a model or framework to operate under. As soon as the need arose, God provided!! Crazy how he does that right? We quickly partnered with CompaCare and adapted their proven framework to wrap around foster families with support to retain foster families. This support is necessary to ensure these families stay actively licensed and continue fostering so that these children can come to know the Lord in a safe, nurturing and CONSISTENT Christian home.
Through this model, Fostering Hope has been able to provide reliable wrap-around care for ALL of our actively licensed foster families at FCBC. This includes a volunteer advocate for each family who manages a team of volunteers. This team provides services such as meal deliveries, goody baskets, babysitting, clothing and supplies. This is possible only through VOLUNTEERS who answer the calling that has been presented to them…AMAZING! We couldn’t do it without them…
So, most importantly, we want to share our “WHY!” At Fostering Hope, our goal is to introduce this Christian-based program into our surrounding community by partnering with neighboring churches and agencies. We believe every family who fosters should have a team of support and prayer backing them. This is God’s true requirement of us, is it not? He calls on us ALL as Christians to care for the orphan. Not only does he ask us to care for the orphan and widow, but he exclaims that it is PURE AND FAULTLESS religion to practice this! We should routinely practice this to keep from being polluted by the world.” (James 1:27) WOW. Focus on the good. Focus on the needs. This seed has taken hold and the overwhelming support has turned into this magnificent demonstration of how God can truly guide willing hearts and PROVIDE when you are simply willing to say, YES! Yes, to foster care! Yes, to supporting foster and adoptive families! Yes, to volunteering efforts to “the least of these.” “GOD IS LOVE! Anyone who lives a life of LOVE is joined to Him. There is NO fear in love. Instead PERFECT love drives away fear. Because fear has to do with being punished and those who are punished do NOT have perfect love…WE LOVE BECAUSE HE FIRST LOVED US!” (1 John 4:19). And we will not rest until EVERYONE, even the orphan, even the “least of these,” knows it…
