The pain a child endures when losing a parent at any age is horrendous. However, there is a peculiar sting that a child feels when they experience the temporary loss of a parent as they are uprooted into foster care. When this happens children are displaced from their homes and they are forced to leave everything they know. The one thing they are sure of is their parents are right within their reach yet they can’t actually be with them. Their little world is flipped upside down. What do they do? Where will they turn? What happens next? These are all questions some selfless families like the Krischkes are willing and ready to answer. They are eager to make a difference during the unprecedented times that come with fostering children.
“Initially we stepped into foster care with the intention to adopt and then step back. But once we were fostering, our eyes were opened to the needs of the foster care system – not just adoptive families but families who were willing to take children into their homes, love them like their own, and then let them go when their families had completed the requirements to bring them home. We knew after our first adoption that it wasn’t over for us.” said Leslie Krischke who along with her husband Matt, founded Knit Together, a local organization that provides free aid and resources to local foster families.
“When our daughter Evie came to us in June of 2017 at two weeks old we weren’t prepared for a newborn, we had given away all of our baby things. Thankfully we had family and friends that helped us, but later we realized that there were many foster families who might not have the same support,” said Krischke. She also went on to explain how lonely it is to withdraw from public life to focus on your new child. Thus, the idea for Knit Together was born. Krischke described the home grown organization as a place that could step in during those first moments to fulfill needs for foster parents so they could focus on welcoming new children to their home.
Krischke was honest when she shared her experiences since becoming a foster parent. She explained, “Yes, you do get paid, but the amount of work you do as a foster parent greatly overshadows the stipends you’re given. There are court dates, therapy appointments, many hours of training, literal mountains of paperwork plus all the heartbreaks and frustrations.” Krischke’s tone changed as she continued to share her heart saying, “There are also moments of absolute joy when a child opens up to you or responds to your hug or gets their first good grade in school. There are times of total satisfaction when the system works and the kids get to go back to their rehabilitated parents who they miss so badly. Fostering is fulfilling in a way that you can only experience by being part of something much bigger than yourself.”
“There is something for everyone to do. It isn’t just about fostering. We need meals, we need monetary donations, and we need people to pray. These needs fall upon the community too, we need people to step up,” said Krischke. The organization has decided to step outside the realm of the normal fundraisers this year and try something different in hopes that they can shed a light on their organization so people know they are here to help. “There have been many goosebumps and tears in my eyes because when we first started getting sponsors for this event we thought it was going to be hard because although we are doing this work we aren’t really in the public eye,” Krischke explained what it was like when they first began planning this event last November. “When the sponsors started to come in, like the first 4 or 5, we thought wow this is exciting but then they just kept coming in and all of the sudden we could barely fit them all on the poster. It just confirms that what we are doing is good and it’s really needed here in Brownwood. As a foster parent, it makes me feel seen. We believe that fostering is a mission field and our whole goal is to wrap the community around these foster parents because we are all in this together.”
Knit Together presents The Secret Garden Masquerade Gala Saturday, April 9th beginning at 5:30 pm at Coggin Avenue Baptist Church. Come dressed in your finest attire for a night of whimsical fantasy. For more information on the Gala follow this link; https://www.brownwoodnews.com/event/knit-together-presents-the-secret-garden-masquerade-gala/ For ticket information, text or call (325) 217-8836
The Krischkes left us with this note about their mission in fostering, “Love hard, at the expense of your own heart. When we were thinking about fostering I (Matt) was very hesitant knowing that having these children in your home, who could leave at any time with little notice, opened us up to a level of heartbreak that a lot of people feel like they just can’t overcome. But a mentor friend of mine one day told me that if it didn’t wreck your heart every time a child left your home, you didn’t love those kids hard enough. They are desperate for it. Don’t hold it back.”