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Spiritual Health and the Foster Care System, Carla Sumner’s Story
Meet Carla Sumner, Secretary for the Iron Rose Sister Ministries Board of Directors!
Carla, tell us a little about yourself and your family, especially how you and your husband have been blessed to be a part of the foster care system.
My husband, Ryan, and I have been married for 22 years (23 in August). We have three kids. John is 22. Lexi is 20 and Anna is 13. John and Lexi are adopted. Actually, we fostered to adopt them. God had His plan in that part of our story.
We started out offering respite care (when a foster family needs a break, we take care of the kids, like for a weekend). With Lexi, we took care of her for a weekend because the family was going to a family reunion. Then we watched her again in August and joked with her foster family that they might just not get her back. We got to visit her again several times and the older couple that was fostering her realized that they would not be able to adopt her. They were an older couple and wanted her to go to a young family. She became a permanent part of our family on September 18, two days after the due date for a child we had miscarried.
Lexi had been in the foster system for two and a half years when she came to live with us. We adopted John when he was seven, but he had been in the foster system for four years. I finally got pregnant with Anna after years of trying. And that’s our family.
I am a licensed speech language pathologist and my husband is a special education teacher, so we were uniquely equipped to help children, especially if there are any delays in their development. We feel like foster care is something God has called us to do. Neither of us grew up with it in our own families, but I was always taught to serve and help. This was one way to do that.
We have been out of the foster system for the past fifteen years, but last September we jumped back in because some friends had a four-year-old boy with very similar issues to our son. After all we had learned in our experience with him, we knew that we could help this family and make a difference in that boy’s life.
Healed
By Jennifer Percell
The #MeToo movement is growing. Each day more people come forward and I am saddened by how many suffer from the selfish acts of others. Me too.
As I listen to brave women tell their stories I remember my own isolation and crippling fear. I remember being physically captive and mentally isolated from others by the stigma of the shocking and repulsive acts. During the abuse and for many years after, my mind fought the lies my abuser recorded there for his own protection. Messages seared into my brain by his words and actions caused despair that seemed insurmountable. I was wounded and broken, and I felt no hope for rescue from the hopeless life that trapped me.
Then one day I found myself with a bunch of church kids. I had gone to a retreat with them to escape for a day and had entertained thoughts of running away while I was out of the house. That afternoon we were all sitting under a tree. One boy with a guitar, one with a Bible. The boy with the Bible read:
“In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:37-39).
Now, 43 years later I can still feel the shock, someone was telling me that there was power and love that was stronger than my abusive father. That was the first glimpse of hope in my life and I craved more and more of this new information.
I learned that God is the Great Physician, He heals, His love is real, and He sees me as precious. I could trust Him, He made me, and He could fix my brokenness. And best of all, He could go with me into the horrible places I was suffering. He could enter my mind and emotions during the abuse and hold me close to Him. He could protect my soul from the pain that was killing all hope in me.
Three years later I could finally leave my abusive home. I knew I needed lots of help. God provided counselors and medications and a support network of good people. All of these were priceless as I fought hard for healing and I recommend that anyone who has suffered use all these tools.
But I believe that it is God who truly healed my heart and soul. It was only when I crawled upon the lap of my heavenly Daddy and let Him hold and comfort me did I truly feel relief. I remember how He gave me 15 minutes of peace and later twenty. How there was a whole morning without hyper-vigilance and focus on my own surroundings. How one day I noticed I had been in the middle of something for a whole day, living my life and not fearfully on the outside looking in.
Only my God could go back through all the pain with me and let me be a needy child again. This time one with a strong, safe and kind Father. A Father who could carry me out of the worst of times and into a life of hope and joy and peace.
If you have suffered abuse and not yet found healing from the inside out, go to the Great Physician. He was there with you protecting your mind and heart from irreparable damage. He is there today ready to repair every broken piece you give to Him. For nothing in all creation can separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus your Lord.
May all of us who have been healed by our Great God say, “Me Too... God has healed Me Too”
Jennifer Percell
If you would like additional information about the #ChurchToo movement as well, we invite you to read this article by the Christian Chronicle.
#IronRoseSister #womenspiritualhealth #metoo #healed
