If I could choose a mascot for Fostering the Family, it would be my daughter, Millie. She is my baby, the darling of our family, and a beautiful picture of why I do what I do.
As my season of raising children was coming to a close, I began asking God, “What could I do next?” I had homeschooled, taught school, and absolutely loved being a homemaker, especially when our children were young.
My dad always told me, “The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world,” and I believed him. I still do. Few callings are more profound or have greater eternal impact than raising the little ones God has entrusted to us.
But as I saw one season ending, I began to sense another beginning. I started praying, “God, what can I do that will make the greatest impact?” I had loved being a teacher, but God made it clear my season of teaching had come to a close.
Have you ever loved something God called you out of? That was my experience. I spent a year waiting, listening, lamenting, praying, and trying to discern what God was doing in my life. As I prayed, something divine began to happen. My calling was starting to develop.
During that time, I began serving in my community in York County. I discovered that I loved connecting people, building relationships, and finding ways to meet needs. Little did I know God was preparing me for something far bigger than I could comprehend or imagine.
At the same time, my friend Betsy Ruch and I began carrying the same burden: What about the children in our community who had no family, no voice, and no one advocating for them?
We saw an overwhelmed child welfare system. We saw hundreds of children entering foster care with no clear way forward.
Then we heard about two little girls in York County who were being sexually trafficked by their mother. They were dancing on tables at a bar off Cherry Road in Rock Hill.
I came home that day and saw my own daughter, Millie, rocking her baby dolls, creating art, and living the beautiful, ordinary life of a nine-year-old girl. Something broke open in my heart. I remember thinking, or perhaps it was God speaking to my heart, “I will never be on the side of doing nothing again.”
Little girls like Millie should be playing with their baby dolls and making art. They should be safe, loved, and know that they matter. But what could I possibly do? The doors for me to personally foster or adopt had closed. So I began asking a different question:
What if we could see more families rise up to care for these children?
Betsy and I began exploring that possibility. We discovered many wonderful licensing agencies already doing the important work of recruiting and preparing foster and adoptive families.
But we also discovered something heartbreaking: many of the very families who said yes to children were becoming overwhelmed and isolated. Some were quitting. Some children were returning to the system.
We knew there had to be a better way forward. So we began researching how we could be as strategic as possible on behalf of children, and what we found changed everything:
Well-supported families are the families who can keep saying yes to children.
Nationally, 50-60% of foster families quit after their first year due to isolation and overwhelm, but with wraparound support, 90% of these same families continue fostering into their second year and beyond.
We realized that if we could surround foster, adoptive, and kinship families with the support they need — practical, relational, spiritual, and community support — we could change the trajectory of a child’s life.
For me, the greatest impact is eternal.
I believe children need more than a safe place to sleep. They need to know they are loved. They need people who will advocate for them, speak truth over them, and point them to Jesus. They need families who will love them well and disciple them toward becoming lifelong followers of Christ.
God gave me the faith to believe He could work through us to use this model all across South Carolina.
We started with one church and three foster families in Rock Hill.
Today, that simple beginning has grown to 40 churches serving more than 300 children monthly through supportive services, while more than 1,200 families have received tangible needs and resources designed to help strengthen families and prevent children from entering the child welfare system because of poverty in the first place.
We don’t do this alone. We work alongside nonprofits, churches, businesses, government partners, and countless people across South Carolina who care deeply about children and families. We have learned that there is room at the table for all of us — we don’t have to compete, we can collaborate.
Because when we come together, we strengthen families, build trust, and create lasting change for children.
This is why Fostering the Family exists. It’s why I cannot look away, and it’s why I continue to say yes.
I believe we can see a generation of families rise up to care for the children God has placed in our communities. What began with one church and three families has become a movement, and I believe we are only getting started.
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