Theodore is our little early bird. It doesn’t matter that he’s 8 years old, 99% of the time he is the first one awake and out of his room. As soon as he’s up he comes and finds me and starts asking for food. This is something that hasn’t really changed in the past 8 years. First he was screaming to be nursed and now he’s screaming for breakfast. This morning, I woke up when Chris went fishing (4:30 am…). Since I was already awake for three hours when he got up, I decided to go ahead and let him fix his own breakfast and I joined him with my coffee and eggs.

We’ve been talking a lot in our home about becoming a foster family. We’re listening to a foster parenting podcast in the van as we travel about, we’re discussing it as we rearrange Katie’s room or when the sitter comes so we can go to our foster parenting classes. This morning I took a chance to ask Theodore what he thought of all this, one on one. He tends to be a pessimistic little fellow, so I wasn’t sure how this conversation would go.

Me: “So what do you think about us becoming a foster family?”

Theodore: “Do we have to do a foster parenting podcast?”

Me: (giggling) “No, we don’t have to start our own podcast.”

Theodore: “Well, you need to get a girl Katie’s age because a baby would be too much work.”

Me: “We will probably get someone younger, who isn’t in school yet. Would it be ok to have more work? Isn’t that what God calls us to do?  Doesn’t He call us to serve?”

Theodore: “I guess. That’d be OK. I mean, I’m not changing any diapers. You’d have to do that. But I know  where the crib would go. On that wall, in Katie’s room, so when the baby cried it would wake us all up.”

Me: “When you were a baby and you cried, Foster and Katie never woke up. Usually only the mommy wakes up.”

Theodore: “Well.” (pauses to think) “I guess it will be good. Until she gets bigger and then I’d have to wait longer to pick.” (Referring to picking a television show, which we do youngest to oldest.)

Me: “Do you know why kids are in foster care? Do you know what God says about orphans? Do you know what an orphan is?”

Theodore: “No.”

Me: “Kids are in foster care because their mommies and daddies did not take care of them or protect them the way they should be cared for or protected. An orphan is someone who’s mommy and daddy have died, but most kids in foster care still have parents that are alive.”

Theodore: “So we would help take care of that kind of kid?”

Me: “Yes.”

Theodore: “We should do that then.”