Thomas Lethem Z

4 years ago today Tommy become apart of our family forever!! What a huge blessing it has been to have him in my life! He is so sweet and special, I can't imagine life without him! He has a way of just brightening up my day! Oct 12 2002 he was born premature and weighing only 4lbs he stayed in the hospital for a week and then he came to us as a foster child. We had no plans of adopting I was the "baby" and I was 15 my parents were "to old to start over" little did we know that God would change all of our hearts and give us a love for him that we couldn't imagine! He has been apart of our family since the day we met him but on Jan 20th 2006 he legally become a Z..... forever!! I hear all the time people say " Oh I could never do foster care or adopt that's just to hard", "it takes special people to do that" "I couldn't do foster care, it would be to hard to give them up" Well I would say yes to all of the above BUT... just because something takes time or is hard should you not do it? Just because you don't think you are the "special person" to do such a thing, should that stop you? If you pray about it and God wants you to do it HE will give you want you need to make it happen! It is extremely hard to "give up" the kids you have in your home that you care for and love so much but one thing I say is its better to show the kids the love of Christ while you have them, no matter how long you are blessed to have them; one day, one week, one month, one year, or one life time!! Love them and share Christ with them while you have them! I heard a commercial for either foster care or adoption I cant remember but it was my favorite an gave me chills every time. It was something like this; kids talking about their fears, "I'm afraid I wont have food to eat today", "I'm afraid my mommy might not come home tonight", "I don't like seeing my daddy get angry at me or my mom", "I'm afraid.... you fill in the blank with things that children have to go through" Then it said if your fears are great then theirs then maybe adoption/foster care isn't for you. It was so powerful because I mean really is your fear of "giving them up" bigger then the fear they face with parents doing drugs, in jail, no house to live in, being abusive, no food, I highly doubt it is! Anyways I could go on for hours about this but as I sign off I want to leave you with two things first Please pray about how you can help out with foster care or adoption, if you don't feel called to help at least pray for the foster families, for the families involved, and for the children in foster care and the ones that need to be adopted!! OK the second thing I'm going to leave you with a little story from Tommy!
We were leaving church one Sunday and as we drove downtown past all of the people sitting, sleeping, and just hanging out on the sidewalks my little brother asked what they were doing? We told him they were homeless, they couldn't afford a home to live in. He said "I want to build a place kinda like a hotel and have all of them come so they have a place to live!" I answered oh Tommy that is so sweet and thoughtful of you! He continued "I know it would be tough work and real hard but I know God will bless me if I do it". I was speechless here this 7 year old had what most of us adults still miss so much of the time! We are so busy with our life we don't stop to think of others and how we can help them out! May Tommy's love for God and people encourage you today! I am blown away when I think what if...his biological mom did have an abortion like she had talked about...he didn't get to be in foster care...he live with a parent that was on drugs and in and out of jail.. if we didn't obey Gods call to do foster care and adopt him...where would he have ended up?? What would his life had been like? I'm so thankful God allowed us to be apart of His plan for Tommy's life!! I know God is going to use that boy in a mighty way!!!
I know this was long but thank you for taking the time to read!