Meet the Thrower Family!
“Excuse me.” These were the words that I lightly let pass through my lips upon hearing that after two long years of fostering the sweetest little boy God had ever made, he could potentially leave our home. As I slumped down onto the cold, tile floor of our bathroom and cried, cried to the Lord to save my family.. save me.. save my son. I cried because of the intense emotion... cried because I truly wanted what was best for the child I had been fostering no matter what even if that meant he would go home to complete another family. My heart was pulled in so many directions and it hurt. I cried.. until “Knock, Knock, Knock.” Someone had interrupted the tears. Thinking back I know now that in that moment God was revealing himself to me. Revelation 3:20 says “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in..” At the door was my son’s social worker. She said, “Mrs. Thrower, I got you, and God’s got you.” She hugged me and together we moved forward uncertain of the outcome but knowing that with God all things are possible. This is where I began to accept the potential of all possibilities, gathered strength, and allowed God’s will to be the true outcome.
My husband and I chose to become foster parents because we feel as though we are accepting a calling from the Lord. Funny story, I thought that I did not want to have children! I even had a long talk with my husband before we got married and made him swear to me that it would be okay if we never had children. After about ten or twelve children passed through our home, I looked at him and said. “Remember when I said I didn’t want kids.” I laughed so hard, but shrugged and nonchalantly said, “I always knew you would change your mind.” After parenting 16 very different children, I knew that fostering was not my journey. It was God who led me in a new direction of adoption.
Permanence is so difficult. We are humans with real emotions nonetheless. I hear, “I couldn’t be a foster parent. I wouldn’t want to give them up.” almost every day. My adoption testimony is a true statement of the fact that it is difficult to accept permanence for everyone involved. I have had children that I have loved and lost. But at that moment there is such true peace about sending children in the direction that they are meant to go. If you seek the will of God, sending those children home or in the case of our adoption having them stay forever is so peaceful.
Our sweet son, Davunntae, at age five, officially joined our family and got to call our daughter “Sister” with real meaning on May 5, 2020. It is truly a day that we will forever celebrate in our home and with our social workers that made a difference in our lives. We have and hope to continue celebrating with every person in our son’s life. We take these goodie bags to our workers to celebrate their hard work and sacrifice. We celebrate the day with his school class and talk to them about what adoption means and why Davunntae looks different from his family. We celebrate the day as a family and rejoice in Davunntae’s homecoming. We celebrate the day and talk about his birth family. We celebrate the day with anyone special and hope that it shows how much we are truly grateful to have a son that is sweet, kind, loving, generous, and awesome in every way.
Every story is different and special, but this is OURS.
