Everyday Fostering - Respite Magic (Junjie)

Lin Junjie writes about how he and his wife, Cecile( Lov Clou), responded to God's prompting and were blessed as they befriended "Adam" (not his real name). They have made a difference in helping social workers in Big Love Child Protection Specialist Centre keep Adam with his family! Thank you, JJ and Cecile!

There are times when HFG receives requests for help to take a child out for a day weekly, provide respite for a few days to support vulnerable families. If you are open to this or fostering, pl do consider coming to our intro tea to hear more! It's on 27/4, 10am near Farrer Road. PM us to RSVP!

<Everyday Fostering - Respite magic!> By JJ Lin

The journey started with our first HFG tea session at a foster parent’s home. We were not ready for fostering but we are amazed that God still opened the door for us to do our part in loving and caring for vulnerable kids.

We were invited to join HFG support group. From there, we came to know about Adam, a 8 year old boy who needed someone to befriend him and bring him out from his house every Saturday because his parents had to work and could not keep him safe.

I guess it is the prompting from the Holy Spirit! At that time, we were touched by a sermon on the Good Samaritan. We decided that we could not be indifferent anymore! HFG linked us up to the social worker from Big Love Child Protection Specialist Centre who gave us more info about Adam. We felt we had to help and decided to give it a try.

*Apprehensive* is how we felt at the first meet up facilitated by the social worker. We had no clue how things will go. Will his mother be hostile? Will the kid be resistant? But it was not like that at all and turned well.

We had our first outing with Adam and went to fly kites at Pasir Ris Beach. It was not smooth sailing. For many hours, he was anxious and did not talk at all. We were the ones doing all the talking. But it was a time to know more about Adam - his likes, his dislikes and also for Adam to know us more and and get used to our family. It got better quickly… Through play, he slowly opened up and played heartily with my son. He even called him Gor Gor towards the end of our first day meeting. We were delighted when he began to sing songs and chatter happily as we sent him home.

Since then, he has cheerfully joined our family every Saturday. We would bring him to eat his favourite chicken rice, fly his favourite kite, teach him to swim and go for our friends’ gatherings. He looked forward to our time together. He even learnt from our son and called us “Papa and Mummy”, despite our reminders that he can call us “Uncle and Auntie”. But we didn’t want him to feel rejected, so eventually we just let it be.

*Joy* is what Adam has brought us. For many of us, it is a norm to bring our kids out to play on weekends. But for families like Adam’s, this is a rare and Adam always looked forward to joining us for the day! It has been a wonderful experience, and my wife and I are thankful that God has allowed us to serve in this way. It has opened our hearts to what God may lead us to next. We really don’t think what we have done is much but we hope that this short period of befriending has made some difference to Adam and given him precious memorable experiences!