If there is one thing I’ve learned in my 33 years on this earth, it’s this: when God talks, LISTEN! Now, learning that and practicing that are two different things. Some people would argue (my wife in particular) that I’m hard-headed and not very flexible. Needless to say, that’s gotten me in more trouble than I’d like to admit, especially with God. His calling on my life has never been subtle, and maybe that’s because he knew he had to be loud and boisterous to get me to listen. We’ve had many heated conversations about what he thought was best and what I “knew” was best. Spoiler alert – he was right. I was wrong. My youth pastor, Chad Monahan, said these words many years ago, but they still ring true in my ears, “God’s idea of better is always better than ours.”
Fast forward to 2012. My wife and I are recently married and starting a life together. I had felt God’s calling on my life to become a counselor so graduate school was on the horizon as I had just finished my bachelor’s degree in psychology at MSSU. Remember how I said he’s never called me subtly? Well, for Erin, this was her first experience of that in my life. I originally had planned to stay close to home to work on my master’s degree in counseling. God said, why don’t you move to Arkansas? Away from your friends and family and go to John Brown University because I want you to get a Christian perspective on this whole counseling thing. Neither my wife nor myself had ever lived more than a stone’s throw away from family or friends. We both grew up in Webb City and KNEW that was home. Again, “God’s idea of better is always better than ours.” So after much deliberation and quarreling with God (and sometimes each other), my wife and I packed everything we owned and moved to Siloam Springs, Arkansas. Fast forward another 4 years and I’m graduating with a master’s degree in marriage and family therapy and working on my license to become a professional counselor in Missouri. We loved our time in Arkansas but felt God calling us to come back “home,” and so we did.
I began work at Ozark Center as an LPC in 2016 and absolutely loved it. I knew this was where God wanted me to be, and I was happy there, comfortable, you might say. From 2015-2019 we struggled to have our own biological children. Another place where God had a plan but we were so focused on what WE thought was best that we scoffed at anything else. Then in 2018, my wife and I were helping with our youth group as high school sponsors, and we took an impact ministry trip to various places around Joplin. One of those was Children’s Division, where they talked about the foster care system. Immediately after, Erin and I started to feel God pulling us toward foster care. We had many conversations and came up with many excuses as to why we couldn’t do it (it’s not a good time, we want our own biological family, etc), but each excuse was met with a doorway that God guided us through and showed us that we could do this. We began foster care classes in January 2019 and were licensed by April. Not even a week later, we received a phone call. A phone call that would change our lives forever.
Here I am, playing the best round of golf of my life, and I get a call from my wife. She says, “Umm our case worker just called, and they want to place us with a sibling group of 3 boys aged 1.5, 4, and 6. Are we available?” My heart dropped. I reverted to all the excuses I had used before about why we couldn’t do it. But before I could get any of that out, God stepped in and spoke through me, “If we’re going to do this, let’s do it”. We were all in. My golf game suffered the rest of that day, but this was it… THIS was what God had been calling us to. Those boys had been through a lot, and I broke down in tears the moment I saw them. Torn clothes, dirty faces, and cowered demeanor, they needed compassion. They needed love. They needed a bath.
Over the course of the next week, we survived on coffee, pizza, and Disney movies. Both of us took turns crying over how overwhelmed we were but how we knew this was the right decision. Time and time again, God provided when we were at our wit’s end. The system found a relative, and all 3 boys went to live with her for about a month. After that time passed, they determined that it wasn’t healthy for the boys to live together due to the trauma they had seen, so they called and asked us if we wanted to take the 1.5-year-old back. We jumped at the chance. Of the 3, the 1.5-year-old and I had bonded, and I was stoked but guarded. As time went on, COVID happened, which delayed court proceedings, we took in a few respites but nothing long-term, and we settled into a good routine, just the 3 of us. Fast forward to 2021, and we still had the youngest brother, Kevin. We were presented with the opportunity to adopt him, and we were so relieved. Erin and I had had many conversations and prayed so hard for this moment. Not because we wanted to hurt the birth family but because we felt like God was putting him in our lives for a reason. He wanted Kevin to be a part of OUR family. Our wedding day is a close second to the day we officially adopted Kevin. Joy, tears, love, and excitement all spilled out that day. Today, he is a 5-year-old who loves soccer, golf, his dog, his friends, Bluey, and his family – a family that God had designed from the start. A family that took a winding road to come together, but we were together.
Foster care is messy but beautiful. There is so much pain but also so much joy. It’s a rollercoaster, and it’s a walk in the park. People tell us all the time, “I don’t know how you do that without getting attached.” Our answer is always, “We do get attached. That’s the point. If we’re loving them with everything we have, it should be difficult to see them go back, but we know God has their best interest at heart”. We didn’t plan on this being our story but, like Chad said, “God’s idea of better is always better than ours.”
Justin Boudreaux
Justin and his wife, Erin, are lifelong members of Christ’s Church and have served in the foster care system for 4 years.
Justin and Erin are pictured here with their two sons, Kevin and Tanner.
