Michaela and Brandon Keilen are on a new journey of foster care, and they are overjoyed to have the honor of caring for two brothers, a newborn and a three-year-old. The Keilens don't know what the future holds or how long they will have the boys in their home. Adoption is not on the table right now, but Michaela has an incredibly selfless view of the situation. She says, "I am going to love them like they are going to be here forever, and if my heart is broken in a million pieces when they go home, I will know that I held nothing back."
They are pouring all they have into these boys, regardless of how long the placement lasts, which is an amazing testimony of God's love. You can watch the Keilens' recent question and answer video on their YouTube channel.
I would encourage you to follow the Feathered Neat blog. It is a Christian blog about foster and adoption and is so good!
ReplyDeleteBless your heart ❤️ both Michaela & Brandon! The Lord has a special calling for your tender and loving hearts!
ReplyDeleteI hope they adopt soon. They’d be really good parents to adopted children the same way as to biological children.
ReplyDeleteWhat they’re doing is truly meaningful. Even if it’s just a small part, they’re making a real difference in these children’s lives.
ReplyDeleteGod bless their selfless hearts for not holding back with these boys!
ReplyDeleteLove this couple. So Christlike and selfless. ❤️🙏
ReplyDeleteBeing a foster parent is wonderful, and good foster parents are so badly needed. However, it's a tough job and I worry this kind, naive, vulnerable couple is going to get hurt.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you 10:17. It sounds like she's gone into this fully, emotionally. She is setting herself up for heartbreak and I hope her mental health doesn't suffer from it. My sister-in-law had a foster situation fail so I've seen first-hand what can happen.
DeletePain is almost certainly a part of the job, but it sounds like she's not unaware.
DeleteVulnerable maybe, but not naive. That's a little unkind. But yes I'm afraid they'll be hurt too, not becasue of naivety but because they'll have learned to love these boys and if they have to give them back its gonna be so very hard for them.
DeleteThey'll just say it was God's plan or something. They can justify anything that happens in life that way, even things they make happen to themselves through their own decisions.
DeleteThey are naive to give their hearts to children who are likely returning to a terrible situation. Wise foster parents detach a little—it’s unsustainable otherwise
Delete“Holding nothing back?” Thats not good for herself, Brandon or those babies.
DeleteAs you say, good foster paretns are so needed. If this placement goes well, and these boys' situation is solved and they can go back to their birth family, Brandon and Michaela will then be flooded with other foster opportunities. Likely even on the "goodbye" day. What I wonder is, will they then be offered troubled teenagers? Or children with special needs? We'll see...........
DeleteThey are going to fall in love with those babies and then have to send them back to a neglectful
ReplyDeleteor abusive home with parents who are supposedly “rehabilitated”
Those children will have experienced a few weeks, months or years of a hopefully loving and stable home. Michael and Brandon will have accompanied and influenced these children in their journey. Fostering is not the same as being parents but not less valuable or less important.
DeletePlease don't be RUDE about these foster children's parents you don't have any idea why they were placed. Judge not least ye not be judged.
DeleteThis was not at all supposed to be rude to the biological parents of the foster children. There millions of reasons why the parents could not provide the stability or the care that children need, at this moment. That is why they have been placed in foster care. That is not a judgement: we all have these moments in our lives. Hopefully the children and the parents get the right help and care, so they can live together again.
DeleteTwo weeks ago our family kissed our precious little foster child (I’m the grandmother) goodbye. Yes, my daughter and son in law offered to adopt him but he wasn’t available for adoption. We gave him our all. He had medical needs but we didn’t care! We loved him and still do with our entire hearts. Now we pray daily he is being cared for, loved, played with, and kept safe. It is all we can do. It helps to know how much we loved him can not compare to how much our Heavenly Father loves him. However, it hasn’t stopped our tears or heartbreak!
ReplyDeleteConfused here. I thought the Bates and Duggars were against adoption due to the "sins of the fathers" coming through the children, per their IBLP beliefs. Also if you can't have children of your own, that's supposedly God's decision for you not to be parents (again, per IBLP). Fostering is OK though? Confused.
ReplyDeleteThat was the IBLP stance years ago; I'm not sure about that now. Anyway, the Bates and the Duggar children have made their own decisions, most of them going against the teachings of the IBLP.
Delete10:54 No doubt they'd tell you they prayed on it and god answered their prayers. Regardless, if the second generation of reality star mega-families decide to set aside IBLP doctrine, I'd say that's a step in the right direction.
DeleteWell, obviously they rejected Gothard's ridiculous teaching about adoption. God Himself talks in the Bible about adopting as children those who trust Jesus as their Saviour. God doesn't have a problem with adoption.
DeleteDon't be confused. If they talk about being open to adoption then obviously they don't believe what Gothard taught about it.
DeleteI don't think the Bates hold to any IBLP beliefs at least not anymore. Skirts and dresses only, no bc and courting vs. dating was not original with Gothard so those can not truly be considered IBLP teachings. He just took those teachings and took them to an extreme. As far as homeschooling goes, that only became an issue for Christian and politically conservative parents when the public schools started teaching evolution and went Woke. If I had lived pre-Scopes monkey trial i would have probably put my kids in public school.
DeleteHard to believe they aren't adhering to IBLP ideology any more, with Gil being so involved high up in that organization. Hard to believe he'd accept his children rejecting those beliefs.
Delete5:41, Gil has ADULT children. Whom he loves. He's not going to disown them, or he would have already when they started moving away from IBLP things like dress and not dancing.
Delete@7:15 you mean kinda like what Jim Bob did with Jill? Yeah Gil has more grace as a father.
Delete8:33, who was talking about Jim Bob?
DeleteNo one @11:10 I was just making a point.
DeleteThey are such a wonderful couple. Praying for them and those sweet babies.
ReplyDeleteA tot and a newborn. I'd like to see them try fostering a few teenage or pre-teen siblings who have endured a lot in their youth... Or maybe kids who have aged out of the system and still need help.
ReplyDeleteIt's all hard, just different kinds of hard, no matter what age.
DeleteI thought if she got pregnant it is Gods will? Also foster troubled teens would be awesome.
DeleteAll of you have one thing in common and forgot that Jesus' Foster father was Saint Joseph, husband of the Virgin, Mary. Enough said. By the way Michaela is a Certified R.N. These children need them
ReplyDeleteThey need their parents. Also, Michaela is a LPN not a RN hasn't done nursing for how long may need to start all over
DeleteWell, they need healthy and stable parents who are able to give them good care. If their parents are not able to do that right now, then they need good foster parents.
DeleteThis will help the adoption process down the road, if they choose to do so.🙏🏻😇
ReplyDelete