Tori's Story | A Fostering and Adoption Story

[Music] when I was nine years old my mom told me that I was conceived out of abuse and she just was in circumstances that weren't ideal she found out that she was pregnant with me while she was in jail and she said when she saw me on the ultrasound that she knew that I was her daughter that she loved me and that she was going to give me life and so I was born to a single mom who with with a lot of hurt and a lot of trauma and that led me to enter the foster care system when I was three years old for the first time and then my mom you know my mom loved me so much and she wanted to do everything in her power to be my mom and for me to be with her and so she worked her case plan and I reunited with my mom but then as I got older my mom's mental illness got a lot worse and so I had to re-enter the foster care system again as an adolescent and this time I entered with my sister where nine and a half years apart and I thought this was like an opportunity for me and my sister to just experience normalcy to have a family to escape the abuse but within a month of being in that first foster home together we were separated and I was moved to a group home and then I moved a lot more moved and moved I moved throughout 12 homes total throughout my entire foster care experience felt very displaced felt very unwanted it was said that I was unadoptable [Music] I had a truck coach that came into my life my sophomore year of high school and people told him like don't get involved with her she's trouble she'll get you in trouble but he thought she was just a kid like all teenagers all kids have their stuff and by my junior year he had become like a father figure in my life he told me that I I could do and accomplish some pretty crazy things um just straight out told me he think that I could he thought I could go to the state track meet and win it never even been to the state track meet individually so that was like a pretty crazy idea but I thought this old man this crazy old man I'm just going to listen to him and we're going to train together and we'll see what happens and throughout that year we became very close I emancipated from the foster care system I was instantly homeless but he welcomed me into his family and he said that I could come live in his home and that year I went on to be a four-time state champion in track and field and that's what allowed me to obtain a full ride scholarship to college and in 2018 I became a part of the three percent of Youth who graduate from college with a bachelor's degree or higher when a child when a youth in the foster care system receives things from the government you know because right now the government is standing in as the solution and I think as a culture we think that they're the solution so when the government gives to youth in foster care youth are always going to see themselves through this broken lens I'm getting this because I'm associated with this broken system because of my Brokenness but the thing the bomb that heals that Brokenness is belonging is community is everything that the church claims to be and so when a child when a youth receives what they need from the church it's sending a different message saying I'm receiving this because I belong I'm receiving this because I'm a part of a family I'm receiving this because I'm part of a kingdom of heaven and I'm a Child of God so James 1 27 is the scripture that talks about religion that is pure and faultless is taking care of the orphan and the Widow James encourages us to not choose favoritism but if a rich man steps into our home and a poor man steps into our presence that we don't put the poor man the man without the child without family at our feet that we put them in the same position that we would the rich man and so I really think that you know the call what God is calling us to is to take care of those without in the same way that we would take care of any other person in our lives every youth in foster care has a case File that follows them around and it speaks about the worst things they've ever done and the worst things that have ever been done to them and people think that because of of the file and because of the use backgrounds that the kids are just troubled that they're bad kids I always felt like people thought that I was a bad kid and I always wanted to show people like I'm a good kid and I think that that's what stops people from getting involved in the foster care system because we see we see the kids as bad we see the system as bad but when we see the kids as God sees them you know as beloved children of God then it's like impossible not to get involved and so it is so crucial like it is the most important that we as the church we as a community as people speak life into into foster youth life so that they know like God created you good like you are loved you are his beloved you're a child of God we have the Holy Spirit that dwells within us that lives within our very being and that means we have the power to step into the most broken of places and bring healing to them I think Ministry is like Springs of Love are so important because kids who come from hard places kids in foster care they see that the church and that God does care about them and that they're gonna put boots to the ground and they're gonna put action to their words if I could say something to people who are hesitant to take in older children or just foster children in general I would just encourage them to do the next thing in love that there's no fear in love and you know I think one of the ways that the foster care system markets itself is like be a foster parent like that's the only way you can get involved but you can be a respite care provider you get the same certification as a foster parent and then you get to dip your toes in the water and you get to see like is this for me and maybe you never become a foster parent but maybe you become a mentor maybe you become like the cool grandparent or the cool aunt and uncle and you just get to love on a kid in a way that could possibly change the trajectory of their lives like my track coach did and so it's a chance it's a opportunity to let people know let kids know who like the reality is there these these kids you know kids in the foster care system they question whether they're loved they question and when I was in the foster care system I questioned whether I should exist but it was because of people's love people's Jesus like love that love that suffered for me that I understood that I am loved [Music] you know people always they always ask like oh you're a track coach you must have been a teacher or he must have some kind of specialization certification with kids or trauma but my truck coach was a factory worker during the day he truly is like the most ordinary person [Music] I think when we see foster parents or adoptive parents like oh my gosh you're amazing but it's like no like you can do this work and be ordinary because we serve an extraordinary God and he can do big things through us [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: Springs of Love Catholic Foster &Adoption Stories

Views: 5,615

Keywords: Springs of Love, Springs of Love Stories, Tori Petersen, fostering, fostering story, adoption, adoption story

Id: 3O8dKZ--POk

Length: 9min 42sec (582 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 09 2023