Support Team

Wow!  I am beyond blessed! 

I had been looking forward to Support Team training since this journey started.  I wanted those that could attend, see what it is that I was learning.  These are not ordinary kids and we are to not treat them as ordinary kids.  We are not to walk up and freely give them hugs or affection, we must ask first.  We do not discipline foster kids like ordinary kids (well I guess that depends on your current parenting).  The way to approach foster kids is with pure, 100% love and attention.  You must first connect with the child, then empower, then correct.  Where I think it is so normal to have those three reversed, first yell at the kid to stop them from doing what they are doing, then talk to them about what they are doing wrong.  I feel that I have an advantage since I don't have any parenting skills that I need to pay attention to and potentially tweak.  So the child and I will learn together. 

Saturday was the last of the training with Project 127 and I had 9 friends (and my Mom!) attend alongside me  for  4 hours, to sit and listen to a briefing of what the 24 hours of training I had gone through.  I feel so amazed at my village of family and friends.  People stepping up to commit to be an active part of this journey alongside me.  I couldn't do it without my village, that is for sure.   There are so many people committed to me in my life and I am so proud to call them my family.  This isn't a journey that can be done alone so this is completely stepping me out of my comfort zone to depend on others to help me.  Yes I am the foster Mom, but you all are our family. 

I keep getting messages of "you are amazing", "you are stronger than I am", "I can't believe you are doing this"...I haven't done anything yet! I have simply listened to the calling and stepped forward to start the journey.  This is not about me at this point, this is about children that need me and us.  I understand my life will change, my routine drastically shattered, my heart will grow and also break and I will become broken at moments but you know what...I believe with all my heart that this is the next chapter in my book.  All those things are going to push me to grow.  I am stepping out in faith that I am doing Gods work to help the orphans of our world. 

I hope in reading and following my journey that I can inspire you and your families to do the same...get involved.  Put yourself aside if you are feeling called to that. 

The next step is the home study.  I have chosen a CPA, Bethany Christian Services and so they will come into my home to interview me, I suppose break me down a bit, inspect my home to ensure it is a safe environment, do a background check, fingerprints, etc, etc.  Keep following along and I will keep you all posted as to how it is going.   If you wish to be an active part of the village, my friends are creating a private facebook group so just email me at CheriSellsHomes@gmail.com to be a part of it.  This is NOT facebook public yet for a few reasons, so please don't tag me or post about it.  Thank you so so much!

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