Week 190: Marriages and Foster Parenting

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Please join us this week in praying for marriages in which couples are involved in foster care.  Couples who choose to be foster parents are choosing an honorable endeavor, but, like any worthwhile endeavor, foster parenting can bring significant challenges to a marriage.

One of those challenges is the demand on time.  Most foster parenting situations require meetings with counselors, agencies, teachers, birth-parents etc.  These requirements take time and necessarily cut into the time a couple may be accustomed to spending with each other.  Making the most of this decreased couple-time is a challenge requiring creativity and commitment.

Another challenge is the emotional investment required to parent a child who likely will be experiencing some level of dysfunction because of his/her previous home situation.  Dealing with the child’s biological parents, who likely will not be satisfied with their child being removed from their care, may also require a couple to dig deep into their emotional reservoirs.  This investment can stress the foster parents’ marriage as the emotional highs and lows upset the relational balance of a marriage.  This stress can even be greater if the spouses deal with emotional situations in significantly different ways.

A third challenge can be coming to terms with different expectations of the fostering experience.  If one spouse is expecting a fostering relationship to turn into an adoption and the other only sees foster care as a short-term commitment, marital friction is almost inevitable.  This lack of common expectations can cause the couple to disagree over family planning, financial management and even housing.  It can also mean totally different reactions when the time comes to relinquish the care of a foster child to his/her biological parents.

Please pray with us that these couples will
  • Be patient with one another as they deal with the time demands of foster parenting
  • Bear each other’s burdens lovingly and without begrudging the sacrifice
  • Be creative and wise in the use of decreased couple-time
  • Understand each other’s emotional differences
  • Resist the temptation of blaming the foster child or the child’s biological parents for creating marital difficulties
  • Take advantage of foster-parent support groups
  • Know that their God will honor their efforts to benefit the life of a child
  • Be the beneficiaries of the presence of the Spirit in their lives
  • Be borne up by continual support and prayers of their friends, family and church

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