FOSTER CARE 14 may 2025 www.goodnewsfl.org Good News • South Florida Edition It’s National Foster Care Month, and since you’re a Good News reader, I’d be willing to bet you’ve heard about the longstanding ministry of 4KIDS. But even with some familiarity, there are some things within the child welfare system that too many of us in the Christian community here in South Florida haven’t really seen. Run after the unseen The reality is that every day, 4KIDS is running after the unseen. These kids and families are hurting and often isolated – but you won’t see their pain in your everyday life. 4KIDS doesn’t only serve kids once they are in the foster care system, we’re also preventing families from breaking down with intervention and care. For many of these families, their struggle for stability and financial security is an uphill battle we so often don’t bear witness to. But for those kids who do come into foster care, the stories and the trauma they bring with them deserve to be seen. At the beginning of my career, I served as a Child Protective Investigator (CPI), so I’ve seen firsthand the unimaginable pain these kids are bringing with them when they enter foster care. I’ve seen them up close, as I help buckle them into the back of my CPI vehicle and as their tired heads rest on my shoulders as we enter the intake facility. I’ve seen them cry with confusion, with disbelief, and most moving of all, from the relief of being rescued. Because of the very nature of Child Welfare we can’t share all of the details of each child’s story; I can’t tell you their names, or show you their picture, but I can invite you to see their faces. The face of foster care is the helpless child you pass in the grocery store but have no idea what’s happening at home. The child who is acting out in class, the one who comes to school every day with no access to clean clothes. They are all around us and yet invisible to us. So how can you see them? You start by learning about their stories, joining a movement of neighbors, friends and community members who are invested in understanding their lives. From there, I’d invite you to start praying. Really praying. I’m talking about thousands of us daily interceding on their behalf and lifting up their needs. Then, we need to take action. Step into the gap For those kids who enter foster care in our community there are still not enough homes for them. It’s a staggering reality and one we can’t turn away from. These kids deserve not just a home but the very best family. Our 4KIDS Foster Families step into this gap in beautiful and powerful ways. Like Danny and Julie Bautista in Southwest Florida. They were foster and later adoptive parents here in Broward County years ago, and they just reopened their home to foster in their new city on the West coast. They just got their very first placement – a little four-year-old girl who needed a place for just a few days. She came in with an ear infection but never once complained of the pain. Julie wondered, “How many times has this little girl been in pain and been ignored, so much so that she wouldn’t ever tell me that her ear hurt?” She’s been in six different placements already at just four years old. At the end of her first day, she was scared to be alone in the dark at bedtime, so Julie laid on the floor next to her bed. In the dark the little girl said to Julie, “I forgot your name.” Julie thought, “Here she was all day not sure what my name was; she’s so little and has had to be around so many different people and learn so many different names.” There are thousands of other kids just like this little girl and they need people like Julie and Danny who are willing to step into their lives to bring comfort, stability and real tools for healing. It takes community members like you to create families like the Bautistas. Through prayer, through financial support, through serving foster families, or through opening your own home to kids in crisis. We all have a part to play in bringing these kids home. See their faces There’s a tension that exists in our community right now for the kids who are suffering, but we don’t see. Leaning into the pain of children and families in crisis looks like a more engaged, more connected, and even more unstoppable movement made up of people like you. For a lot of families out there May marks one of the busiest months of the year, and as a dad of three, I feel the pace of this month right along with you. But even in the midst of that, it is my prayer that our daily lives would include slowing down to really see their faces. Get curious about what that can look like for you, and be open to the ways God would use you to impact thousands of kids and families who are out there waiting. "She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: ‘You are the God who sees me,' for she said, 'I have now seen the One who sees me.'” - Genesis 16:13 Scan this QR Code to learn more about what you can do this National Foster Care Month. Scan this QR Code to meet the Baustista Family and hear their story. A Month to See - Andrew Holmes - 4KIDS President Danny and Julie Bautista with their children
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