Reviewed by: Chrissie Pappas, wife, mother and foster mom

Introduction

Title: Faith & Foster Care – How We Impact God’s Kingdom

Author or Producer:

Dr. John DeGarmo

Publisher or Studio:

New Hope Publishers

Publication or Release Date:

May 2016

Format (i.e., print book, ebook, CD, DVD, movie, TV show, YouTube video, etc.):

Paperback

Length (i.e., 350 pages, 1 hour 45 minutes, etc.):

176 pages

OVERVIEW

In the beginning of the book, Dr. DeGarmo states that foster parents are weird. Which sounds like an odd thing to say, especially since he has been a foster parent for 12 years. He writes, “Surely, there is no earthly reason to be a foster parent. So, why do we do it? For many, like my wife Kelly and I, we are answering a call.” I realize how right his statement is. People in the world will see foster parents as weird, but we aren’t doing it for other people. We are foster parents to answer a call. This was so encouraging to read, at a time when I needed encouragement. One of the most impactful aspects of this book was how Dr. DeGarmo described loving and praying for our child’s birth parents. This is so hard to wrap my brain around sometimes. He shared some horrific stories of abuse done to his foster children by the birth parents. And shared how he and his wife continued to pray for the birth parents despite that abuse. He writes how they are just as much God’s children as we are. To me, that is loving like Jesus loves. DeGarmo described something that is also so important in this journey, uniting with your spouse in prayer. With every call from the social worker that came in, he and his wife would pray about their response. They would pray for their children often and pray for each other every day. I hope we can model our foster parenting after these two. The real-life stories in this book had me crying and put me right there in the shoes of the foster parents. This book made me feel like it’s okay to have doubts and fears and frustrations, we just need to bring them to God.

ASSESSMENT

Rating (1 to 5):

5

Suggested Audience:

Those interesting in foster care in general or being a foster parent.

Christian Impact:

Very inspiring and helpful to those considering being foster parents.

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