Logan and Brittany walked into Chick-fil-A expecting a quick meal. By the end of their dinner, though, they were on a new path in life. This dinner was the first step in their three-year journey fostering infants and toddlers. They have provided a safe and loving home for 10 children in total, three of whom are with them now.
When the young couple first married, they had what Logan now calls a “pre-packaged plan of what (their family) was going to look like.” That began to change after they traveled to Mexico with their church on a humanitarian service mission. Logan and Brittany saw a small shack with a roof made of corrugated cardboard and stairs made from car tires. They inquired about the residents and a local pastor explained that this was the home of a grandmother and her eight young grandchildren. Logan and Brittany were struck by the vulnerability of these children and asked what would happen to the children after their grandmother passed away. “We thought, what can we do, how can we help? Can we adopt them all?” says Logan.
When Logan and Brittany returned home, they began looking into adoption, but decided they were open to parenting in whatever form it took. Then fate took them to Chick-fil-A. “We were with our friends and ran into a couple they knew from church, who were foster parents with Angels Foster Family Network,” Brittany says. The couple talked about their experience fostering, says Brittany. That’s when a lightbulb went on.
Though Angels is not affiliated with any religion, Logan and Brittany are people of deep faith. In fact, Logan is a minister at Ocean View Church, a nondenominational congregation in San Diego. “After praying through it all, we really felt the Lord leading us to foster care,” says Brittany. “I had no idea what this journey was going to look like, but it has been evident along the way that God had a plan for us in this.”
“We have a great responsibility to those in need,” says Logan. Angels believes that foster parents are not only in a position to help infants and toddlers, but can often make a positive difference in the lives of biological parents. “We are all imperfect human beings, so we come at this reassuring parents that we’re here to help them too,” he says. Logan and Brittany say many of the biological parents have helped them deepen their faith as well. “People can change,” says Logan. “There is great hope in that.”
At Angels Foster Family Network, people who foster understand that the goal is to reunify infants and toddlers with their biological families when it is in the best interest of the children. As such, Angels encourages foster parents to embrace the biological parents with the same level of love and compassion they extend to the children. This is a philosophy that made sense to both Brittany and Logan, especially since Logan says his own childhood was wrought with some of the same challenges foster children face. “My mother was a single parent and I was raised by my grandparents, and I was blessed and lucky I didn’t end up (in foster care), he says. “People were placed in my life who lifted me up and invested in me,” and now he says it is his turn to reciprocate.
Serving as foster parents is hard work, Brittany and Logan say. But moreover, it is rewarding. “We love doing it because we know what we do makes a difference. We teach the children good things and they know they have us every morning. Everyone has those favorite people in their lives who were there for them and created great memories. We’re hoping to be that for these children,” says Logan.
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