Tori's Stories

Growing up, Mother’s Day was simple. It was a day to celebrate your mother. We’d wake up excited to give her the cheesy gift we made at school and she pretended to love it. Then we’d go to church, pot a plant or something and hand that off to her again. She’d smile and thank us all while wishing we’d help her clean the house once we got home.   Mom’s are worth celebrating. They do so much to ensure their children’s well being while their children do not even notice most of it. They play the roles of taxi driver, cheerleader, cook, nurse, maid, friend, and so on.   Happy Mother’s Day to my mom (and my grandma). But, I grew up and even though I still love my mom and my mom is still very much worth celebrating, Mother’s Day brought on new meanings.   Now I get to play the role of mom. But I do it to children who first had a mom that they no longer get to be with and that breaks my heart every day.   Since being in the foster parent role,...

I’m frustrated. There are so many things that are frustrating. I see them first hand each day, my Facebook newsfeed is full of them, and there are so many more I have no idea about. A baby dies because the family doesn’t have money to feed it, a shooting happens in a public place, children do not have parents, people are diagnosed with cancer and so much more. I read an article the other day ( http://www.prweb.com/releases/2014/06/prweb11951808.htm ) where a ten year old boy that has cerebral palsy (non mobile and non verbal) wrote a $250,000 business proposal. He wrote it using his eyes. He is not able to do the things many of us take for granted each day but he is smart. There is technology that allows him to tell the world the thoughts that are going on inside his head. I want this for our kids. We have 10 children that are similar to him; a few may walk one day and a few may talk one day, but we don’t know. I want them to be able to communicate with us—to tell us what they...

2013… It feels like it has been the Exodus. Many children have finally been able to go home with their forever family. It is such a blessing to watch the parents and the children unite. To watch them learn to communicate with each other, to watch them bond, and to watch them live out the moment they have been waiting for and praying for, for so long. A day that their families have waited years for. A day that begins a life that our children cannot even fathom. A day of tears of joy. A day of question from the child. A day where the child is excited to have someone to call their own. A day where the child doesn’t really understand what is going on. A day where we say good bye, never knowing if we will see the child we have loved on again. A day where their friends wonder where their friends are going. A day where their friends question when their turn will come. Each time we stand under the mango tree, waving to a new complete family driving out ...

Last night I was reading a book that related earthly adoption to God’s adoption of us. I’m not sure I agree with that. Yes, 1 John 3:1 says “See what kind of love the Father has given to us that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” I wholeheartedly agree that I am a child of God and he is my father, but I also believe this was true before my earthly parents even thought of me. But, this viewpoint got me thinking. You may believe the same way this book does and that is totally fine, I know I do not have all the answers. From now on, we will not be thinking the way I think, but rather the way the author of this book does. As soon as we accept God into our hearts he becomes our dad. He has adopted us. It doesn’t matter who we are, what we’ve done, what we are capable of doing, or where we came from: we are His children. He accepts us as we are no matter what. We are each special in our own way and we are very needy. We need to be forgiven, we need to be con...