A Letter to the Mother Wondering About Foster Care and Adoption // Kimberly Henkel

In this third episode of the Letters to Mothers series, Kimberly Henkel of Springs of Love joins me to discuss foster care and adoption.

We’re talking about how Kimberly and her husband Greg discerned the call to foster care. We’re also busting myths around adoption that might be holding you back from discerning that call as a family, and both of us are sharing our experiences as adoptive mothers. 

Whether you’re exploring the possibility of adoption or foster care, you’re already an adoptive or foster mother, or you’re wondering how to better support adoptive and foster families in your community, this letter is for you.

Topics we cover:

• Kimberly’s story as a Catholic woman

• How Kimberly and Greg discerned the Lord’s call to foster care and adoption

• The origin story of Springs of Love, Kimberly and Greg’s ministry that encourages, educates, and equips Catholics to discern and live out the call to foster and adopt

• The differences between foster care and adoption

• Spiritual maternity and the adoption triad

• Kimberly’s advice to couples hesitant to discern foster care or adoption because of the cost

• Why open adoptions can be healthy for everyone involved in the adoption triad

Resources for you:

• Find Springs of Love online

• Watch the Springs of Love video series

• Ten Myths about Adoption from the Springs of Love website

• Check out my monthly newsletter, Naptime Notes

Discussion questions:

1. Have you felt called by the Lord to discern growing your family through adoption or fostering children? What has that discernment looked like for you both as an individual and in your marriage?

2. What myth surrounding adoption that Kimberly mentioned in the show is something you’ve believed to be true before?

3. Romans 8:15 says that “You did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption, through which we call ‘Abba, Father!’” How does reflecting on this theological reality of adoption in all of our lives as children of God through baptism impact the way you think about adoption and foster care?

4. What are ways that you can accompany birth mothers and families in the adoption triad?

5. Does your parish community support adoptive and foster families well? What are things you can do to encourage a culture of life for families who are called to foster or adopt?