‘This is a calling’: Foster parents share home, experiences

Parents Jason and Gina South are finalizing the process of adopting 1-year-old Juliet, who is sitting on her father’s lap. The Souths have three biological sons, Liam, left, Duncan and Crispin. (Photo by Montgomery Advertiser, via www.montgomeryadvertiser.com)

The Montgomery Advertiser in Alabama reports on Jason and Gina South, who attend the Vaughn Park Church of Christ:

Foster parents Gina and Jason South are able to handle the pain of letting go.
Not that letting go is easy.
The Souths, a Montgomery couple with four children — three biological sons, and 1-year-old daughter, Juliet, whose adoption will soon be finalized — fostered a 3-day-old boy for almost a month. Bonding and falling in love with the baby was easy. When it came time for him to leave their care, it was heartbreaking.
“I felt very protective of him,” Gina South said, adding they did not refer to the baby by his birth name, only calling him “baby.” “He went everywhere with us. I felt everywhere we took him, he generated love. People know if you’re in foster care, you’re coming from a difficult situation.”
Gina and Jason South took foster parenting classes through Agape of Central Alabama, a licensed child-placing agency that for more than 30 years has provided foster care and adoption services.

Agape is associated with Churches of Christ.
The story notes that the Souths met at Mars Hill Bible School in Florence, Ala., and later married while attending Freed-Hardeman University in Henderson, Tenn.
Read the full story.
See The Christian Chronicle’s January 2012 story on challenges facing Christian children’s homes.