May is National Foster Care Month so I reached out to my friend, Molly Marks, who is an incredible champion and example of this willingness to enter into the brokenness of other peoples’ lives and bring them hope for a future. She says, “I foster because those kids deserve to have a safe place to call home while their families are hopefully restored.” She says the children entering foster care didn’t have a choice about being ripped from their biological families.
Molly and Bella Marks with one of the 13 “heartstrings” they have fostered in the past four years
I have been on the sidelines watching in respect and admiration as Molly has fostered multiple newborns, sometimes more than one at a time, and many into their early years where the heart breaks as we only watched from social media as a new family became the family for a piece of Molly’s heart. As she so well states, “It’s giving your heart and soul to babies you may never get to see grow up. It’s court dates, paperwork, casework visits, doctor appointments, and trying to navigate a broken system that is supposed to help but seems to hurt far more often. It seems crazy that someone would willingly sign up for that.” Why would someone subject themselves to that? Molly did because, “I have been called to love people, especially those who are hurting and need the love the most.”
What really started this journey for Molly started after the 2010 earthquake that hit Haiti. After a medical mission trip to the country, she adopted her daughter, Bella. It was daughter, Bella, who began begging for a sibling a few years ago and since both Molly and Bella had a lot of love to give, they began fostering. They have been fostering for 4 years and have fostered 13 babies. Molly says she often finds Bella whispering little pep talks to the babies about various life lessons including understanding what they are going through. “Every baby has a piece of our heart.”
There are 391,000 children and youth in foster care. Foster parents are in need throughout our area. Info: Foster Parenting in TN
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