What Sparked My Passion for Foster Care: Greg's Story

I have always wanted to be of use to as many people as possible. I find it much easier to feel valuable when I know I am providing not just for myself, but for others as well. The longer I live, the more I see how everyone needs help in some form throughout their entire lives. But the people who need the most help and attention are often the most overlooked—the elderly and the young. These are the ones society has deemed as having either outlived their value or not yet attained or created their own.

Naturally, the more I became aware of these realities, the more compassion I felt to do something about it. In 2020, I worked as an Optometric Assistant visiting nursing homes and assisted living facilities. My heart opened to the elderly in a way it never had before. I saw people who needed help but had never wanted it up until that point in their lives. It is a vulnerable position to be at the mercy of others, and it takes significant compassion and humility to walk alongside people who experience daily pain, frustration, grief, and loss. Many of these individuals may not even be able to fully express their thoughts and emotions.

As for children, they experience many of the same emotions but lack the cognitive ability to understand why they are sometimes celebrated and other times criticized. Kids need patience, kindness, dedication, and joy to grow into content, caring people—both for themselves and for others. I’ve worked with children of all ages, from babies to young adults, leading them in Bible studies, chess classes, sing-alongs, playground adventures, chores, cooking, cleaning, conflict resolution, emotional intelligence, and creative play. For a child to truly grow into themselves, they need a space where they feel safe to be who they are and enjoy their surroundings.

My wife has always dreamed of becoming a foster mom, and when I married her, I knew that meant I would become a foster dad. But for this dream to become my own, it needed to take hold of my heart. That moment came when I learned that some people feel it’s easier to abort a child rather than give them up for fostering or adoption. This realization broke my heart in a way I never knew was possible. But what struck me even more deeply was hearing that some parents don’t know—or don’t believe—that their child could be fostered with love, care, and a calling from God to cherish that child as their own. To foster with the hope that one day, the mother might reunite and take her rightful place became, for me, a matter of eternal significance—life and death.

This was the turning point where my passion for foster care truly began. I now wholeheartedly believe that fostering a child is saving a life. And I will treat babysitting, nap time, diaper changes, potty training, homework, school activities, mealtimes, laundry, daily encouragements, apologies, forgiveness, laughter, and fostering itself as matters of life and death.