10 creative ways to support foster and adoptive parents

Ask someone who advocates for orphans what they need most, and they’ll tell you, “More families.” With more than 330,000 children in the foster care system in the U.S. on any given day, the need for caring homes and families is readily apparent and urgent.

But fostering and adopting are a lot of work. According to Lifesong for Orphansopens in a new tab, 38 percent of Christians families consider adopting, but only five percent actually do. Why the discrepancy between the desire to adopt and actually doing it? The reasons range between the expense, the intimidating process, and the paperwork.

But we're called to care for orphans.

What if churches like yours could support families in their congregations, to come around them and build a community that takes the pressure off? We talked with experts, as well as adoptive and foster families, to find out what they needed.

• Gather stuff: Instead of taking old baby clothes, jackets, car seats, or prom dresses to a thrift store, find a foster closetopens in a new tab in your area, or consider using space your church already has to create one. Be sure to consider children of all ages – from newborn to teens. And communicate regularly that this is available to members of your church and community.<br>
• Tutor: Parents and teachers in your congregation probably already understand what it feels like to be in over their heads helping kids with homework. Imagine what this is like for foster families, who sometimes raise multiple foster children along with their own. Encourage those in your church with educational skills – parents and teachers – to consider volunteering to help a foster family.<br>
• Train babysitters: Foster families will need a break once in a while, but not just any babysitter can care for a foster child. In most cases, it is illegal to leave a foster child with someone who is not trained. Sitters must be 18 years or older, be CPR certified, and have undergone a background check. Consider hosting CPR training in your church to get sitters through the first step.<br>
• Create a care-package team: Frequently, foster children arrive at someone’s home without much warning. Appoint a team to create a customizable system of care packages (and a good relationship with the foster closet you’ve found or established). Items include diapers, strollers, car seats, bikes, comfort items like stuffed animals, and new blankets. This team can be on-call when a new foster child arrives at the home of one of your church’s foster families. Consider preparing welcome packages for adoptive families too.<br>
• Develop support groups: Foster and adoptive parents often live in a world of unusual and complicated situations involving changing rules, interactions with biological parents, unmet hopes, and frustrating systems. This is what they signed up for, but the journey can be difficult, and there are often very few people who can understand what they are going through. As a church, provide a time and place for these families to come together to support each other. If you have trained counselors on staff or in your church, consider enlisting their services as facilitators. If possible, provide certified babysitters during this time.<br>
• Train respite parents: Certified babysitters can only babysit for a certain number of hours and a certain number of times. When foster families need time for travel or much-needed rest, respite care providers are needed. Because becoming a respite parent requires more than babysitting, these families are hard to find. Find those in your church willing to be trained appropriately, so you're ready when your foster families need a break. What does it take? Foster Love has a great page with information about the need for and how to provide respite to foster parents. opens in a new tab

Becoming or supporting foster care and adoptive parents is essential if we're going to rise to the challenge of James 1:27. What will your church do to love these families well?

Special thanks to Jedd Medefind of CAFO and Jason Johnson for their input on this article. For more ideas, read the book Everyone Can Do Somethingopens in a new tab by Jason Johnson. It’s written specifically for church leaders just getting ready to launch and lead orphan ministries.