With three adopted sisters, adoption was already familiar to Chelsea Biggers, a foster mom with Families 4 Families. Her husband, Dustin was also drawn to adoption and even made sure Chelsea was on board before the pair went on their first date.
Adoption has been a part of their story from the beginning — foster care was not.
“I’ll be honest, foster care was not on our radar. We wanted to adopt, but we did not want to foster. We wanted to guard our hearts, but the Lord gave us such grace and had our story unfold differently.”
“There was never any reason we could not have biological children. We have two and have one on the way. We just knew we also were meant to adopt,” said Chelsea.
The couple started the home study process early on in their marriage, but foster care was not on the table until the Lord intervened.
“Jesus connected all of the dots — as He tends to do,” said Chelsea.
“My husband is very faithful, though he rarely asks the Lord to speak to him directly, but he said on the way to training ‘We won’t traditionally foster unless the Lord audibly speaks.”
And within 12 hours, He did.
“We knew we wouldn’t have all of the information. We knew we would need to expect reunification for each kid. And, we knew this was from the Lord,” said Chelsea.
Shortly after, the Biggers were connected to Families 4 Families through their Home Study Coordinator, Jennifer.
“She spoke very highly of [Families 4 Families] — how supportive they were, how serious they took placing kids — and this was exactly what we experienced.”
Fostering comes with challenges. It churns personal and spiritual growth.
“We had our first boys for 10 and a half months. We walked with them until they went to their forever home. Prying a four-year-old off of your leg is hard. You’re never the same. This has been such a journey of faith,” said Chelsea.
As difficult as it was to say goodbye, the Biggers continued to open their home to new placements because they knew the impact it had on children in foster care and their own biological kids.
“Our biological kids have felt the weight of fostering. But, it’s also given them compassion that I could have never taught them in a book. They still ask about and pray for every child by name who’s been placed with us — even the ones who were only here for a week,” said Chelsea.
“We were also 100% confident that we were not these new children’s parents. We were a stepping stone to their parents and forever home.”
That is, until the Biggers themselves became a forever home.
“We had just changed our fostering preferences to one child under two, preferably a girl — and then we got the call to foster our twin sons.”
Within 24 hours, the couple had assembled cribs, gotten everything together and welcomed two baby boys into their home.
These decisions are made fast, and you can’t do it alone.
“We had to learn to let people into our homes and our lives. [At the start] we had this mentality of ‘I signed up for this’ and ‘We can handle this ourselves.’ But we had to flip the script and do life together,” Chelsea said.
“Within 20 minutes of the first day at home with our boys, we had case managers [from Families 4 Families] in our home supporting us. The community aspect of foster care changed my life, and Families 4 Families was a big part of that with their date nights, diaper drops and meals when we were having a tough week.”
Fostering through Families 4 Families showed Chelsea, Dustin and their growing family that their community was there to stay and truly cared.
“The consistency of the Families 4 Families team is another huge piece. Our case manager stayed with us from day one of our first placement all the way through the adoption of our twins,” said Chelsea, “And the community around us, even just locally, was incredible. I could call and say ‘I’ve got a kid coming in a few hours and I need help putting this bed together’ or ‘Please bring dinner, and it has to be chicken nuggets because I just promised this kid that walked through my door five minutes ago that they could have chicken nuggets.’”
Opening their home to foster care didn’t just impact the kids — it’s left a lasting mark on the Biggers, too.
“There’s such a richness around us and in us now that I don’t think would have been there without foster care. Not to mention, our sons and the joy of being able to adopt these boys,” she said.
“Our lives are changed forever because our boys are here, and Families 4 Families kept us in the saddle. We could have easily been a “one and done” placement. Our first placement was really hard, and the others were difficult too, but we had Families 4 Families cheering us on.
“Having their support helped us feel like we weren’t alone. And because Wayne and Kelli have walked this journey themselves, they know exactly how to support foster families.”
Stories like the Biggers’ remind us that stepping into the unknown can transform lives — both theirs and yours. Will you help foster families continue this mission? Give now at families4families.kindful.com.