We Opened Our Home to 16 Foster Kids: Here's What Really Happened

Justin and Chelsea Smith have opened their home to 16 foster children over eight years in San Angelo, Texas, and 94% of those kids have gone back to their biological families. That number runs nearly double the national average, and it reflects something very deliberate about how they approach the work. In this episode, they share the stories behind that statistic, including a two-year-old who arrived non-verbal and self-harming and left six months later saying "Daddy home," a mother who was incarcerated and fought her way back to her children in record time, and a Mother's Day Chelsea spent at the NICU holding a baby whose own mother was not coming back.This conversation also moves into something harder to articulate. Justin describes lying awake during a break from fostering, realizing that the comfort scared him more than the chaos ever had. Chelsea talks about learning to be "a good yes" for a child even when you are not their forever yes. Together they make a case that faith and calling rarely look like what we plan for, and they close with an honest word for anyone who has thought about fostering and quietly talked themselves out of it.CHAPTERS:00:00:00 Opening Highlights00:01:02 Welcome to Open Homes Initiative00:02:22 Meet Justin and Chelsea Smith00:03:46 How It All Started in 201600:05:29 Respite Care and Getting Licensed00:10:13 The Hard Parts They Do Not Skip00:12:09 The Boy Who Said Daddy Home00:19:30 Relationships with Biological Families00:24:23 Mother's Day in the NICU00:30:29 Their 94 Percent Reunification Rate00:34:17 How Fostering Shaped Their Family00:36:21 When Comfort Becomes the Warning Sign00:42:31 Advice for Anyone on the Fence00:47:27 Closing