Our family has been a host family with Better Together for about a year now. We have learned so many things along this journey.
One of the biggest lessons we have learned is our capacity to love others. Hosting a child and serving a family in need is extremely rewarding. I never knew how much we could love these children we had never met, who did not share our DNA, and only lived with us for a short time. I could never have imagined how instantaneous that connection can sometimes be. We have loved them almost as soon as we received the call they were coming! People often tell us, “you are doing a great thing for that child,” but the truth is, we get back so much more than we give!
Hosting a child and serving a family has brought our family closer together. We have two teenage daughters, so they are quite independent and not home as often. When we host a child, our family works together, and has developed a closer bond. It is an amazing feeling! The girls often ask me what they can do to help. They spend more time at home now so they can also spend time with the child, and I love watching them show love for a child as if they were a brother or sister.
The community support is incredible! We are not doing this alone! Through the “Every Child Initiative,” we are able to borrow items such as furniture, clothing, etc. that may be needed for placement for the child. We have rarely had to purchase anything for the child our own money.
Better Together, the Every Child Initiative, and our own community group have rallied around us to provide resources, meals, and respite to make being a host family as easy as possible. It is what my family is called to do by God. We are grateful to have the support of so many people. One of the reasons we chose to become members at Summit Church is the support for foster and adoptive families. We have been a foster family and now enjoy serving as a host family with Better Together to help keep kids out of foster care.
Through our experience, I have learned to love people where they are and to trust God. I am often reminded, there but for the grace of God, go I. There have been times when I thought I could do a better job of raising a child, but then seeing that child a week later reunited with her family with a huge smile on her face lets me know God’s plan is perfect.
Most recently being able to video call a mom in jail so she can see her newborn felt almost as rewarding to me as it was to mom. We have been able to get to know people we would usually not cross paths with and see them as hurting and broken but human and in need of grace, just like we need God’s grace every day.
~Keri Coggins
