Project Sunshine

Happy Wednesday evening! No work tomorrow so I'm excited! I think we are actually supposed to get our first snow of the winter. I can't believe its January 11th and I wore short sleeves to work today. Crazy to not need a coat this time of year. However, I don't think it will last.

Anyways, I don't know if some of you listen to 91.5 WCIC? I've been hearing information about Project Sunshine and how it related to foster children and it peaked my interest. I went to 91.5's website and read about it.

There is an organization called The Forgotten Initiative which raises awareness for foster care agencies. They have lots of different projects but one is called Project Sunshine. They are going around to foster care agencies and renovating their waiting/visiting rooms. These children will have visits with their biological parents and family in these rooms. They want the rooms to feel warm and inviting and fun for the children. Before the renovations at other agencies the rooms were drab with old broken toys and now they look spectacular!

They are doing renovations to the waiting rooms at the Family Core agency in downtown Peoria. This is where our foster training classes are. If we do end up pursuing foster care in the future this is most likely the agency we would try to get our license through.

I don't know first hand the trauma and hardships these children go through since we are not foster parents but just talking about all these things in class makes my heart break for them. Some of the topics we discuss I never really thought they existed, at least not in this area. I'm so thankful for the family God gave me and that because of that family these are things I never had to go through or even think about. Which makes me want to help these kids even more. Maybe this is why pregnancy is not in God's plan for us. Maybe adoption and foster care is in His plan for us. I have a strong desire to help these kids I'm just not sure the timing of things. We talk about foster care being down the road a few years I just know that I want to help now. So, for now Aaron and I are planning on going shopping and getting some new toys and diapers, etc. for this project. And, I'll keep making some drawstring bags to help out.

I'm praying that these kids will feel all the love and care that went into these renovations, that God would show Himself to them and that they know they are not forgotten. I'm also praying that God would direct us as to what His plan is for us regarding foster care.

Here is a link to some info on Project Sunshine. Once you get to this page there is a list of donated items they are looking for.    http://www.wcicfm.org/project-sunshine


Here is the link to The Forgotten Initiative  http://www.theforgotteninitiative.org/

And here is the link to the lady's blog who is the founder of The Forgotten Initiative http://www.lifewithapersonalgod.blogspot.com/