2023 in Review

“You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the step.” ~Martin Luther King 

As founders of Fostering Futures, we sit back and reflect in awe of how God has been in every detail of this journey of 2023 with launching our dream and vision of Fostering Futures of North Carolina. If we had the space to sit you all down at a table together and share our story, we most certainly would. Our eyes would be brimmed with tears of all the ways God has seen us through this year. 

We would be lying if we said every moment has been easy. As the realists that we are as individuals, we understand more and more each day that our relationship with God and our codependence on Him is what gets us through this life, even with launching a nonprofit. Satan tried to meet us at the front door, day one and week one that we launched, whispering in our ears that we couldn’t do this. Both of us had personal things going on within our families that could have easily paused our launch date (1-9-23). However, we knew what God was wanting to do with our story and our launch date. With His help, and the help of others backing us, we launched on the timeline God had given us. 

Over the weekend, we spent time celebrating with our family, friends, and some of our community leaders who have all supported our journey from the ground up. With tears in our eyes and joy in our hearts, we shared and looked back over this past year’s journey, triumphs, and growth. And let’s just say, for our first year, we are AMAZED of this story God is building for Fostering Futures of North Carolina. 

We recently read a statistic that 90% of non-profit startups don't make it after year 1.  Since day one for us, we knew we would never be able to pull this off on our own, and we haven't. We were only successful because of God and you all, our community. You all in some way brought life to our dream and constantly showed up in all of the ways needed. 

In this year, God has given us opportunities to do a book drive and collect school supplies for kids and teenagers in foster care. We were able to provide our first scholarship, launch our life skill classes, and provide furniture for others who have aged out of foster care and were living in their own space for the very first time. One of our fondest moments was providing $100 gift cards to teens in foster care or who have aged out of foster care on “Giving Tuesday” to help with some of their most urgent needs. Taking 10% from each quarter and launching our “Blessing It Forward” program to support other local nonprofits in our community like Crossroads, Alamance Pregnancy Center, Sustainable Alamance, and Living Free Ministries has brought pure joy to our hearts, along with doing a “current needs” drive for these organizations, as well. 

We want to end our first year with the same thoughts and prayers that we started it with, sharing from our first blog of 2023, “As we continue to embark on our journey through Fostering Futures of North Carolina, we ask for your continued prayers and support.  It goes without saying that leading a non-profit is a labor of love, and our hope is to showcase that in everything we do, that to Love God is to Love People.  Our promise is to always lead according to the Lord, to always lead with humble hearts and spirits, and to always be of service in everything we do, to everyone we meet, and to every kid we strive to help. We hope that you’ll continue to join us on this journey so that together, we can show these kids, our kids, that family isn’t just blood, home isn’t just a place, and that no matter where we are, where we go, or where we end up, the Lord is always with us.”

“If your causes are not worth the sacrifices, then they are not causes.” ~A.B. Coleman

Kaitlin Reckert, President & Co-Founder

Stephanie Kinley, Vice-President & Co-Founder