Episode 9: A conversation with Karina Venable about foster parenting, adoption, and carrying on when life feels like death

Karina and I enjoy a conversation about all sorts of subjects. Karina is a woman of God who I very much appreciate for her wisdom, peace, and kindness. She is an enthusiastic mom, wife, friend, and loving family member. I feel like I rediscovered a little about Karina and her heart for prayer in this podcast.

She is writing for her church from time to time and is open to being contacted on social media. She writes at her blog karinavenable.wordpress.com and would love to hear from you there too!

When we started talking about her and David fostering kids my heart just broke a little. Karina is fierce, strong, persistent, and kind…in my opinion that’s a winning combination!

Something Karina said that I think is amazing and will stick with me…

“Good things grow slowly.”

“Read his word and take him at his word.”

At one point in their fostering journey the pain was so great she didn’t want to wake up. Boy… Karina is someone who knows how to walk with her God!

They Say Hope is the Last Thing to Go

My mother told me those words when she found out she had Stage 4 liver cancer. I thought it was the dumbest thing I’d heard in the long time. First of all, who are they? And…and I thought hearing was the last thing to go. That’s what DOCTORS say. I thought those two thoughts but told my mom, “That’s good Mom. Hold onto hope.” I learned over the course of the next two months that my mom was right!

She knew better than me…her son who is a pastor.

You see nobody hopes for something they already have in full. We hope for something we don’t yet possess. This is true for every Christian. The other thing about hope is that it will never put us to shame. Romans 5:5 tells us that. The old NIV Bible says, “does not disappoint” us. I told my Mom, you won’t open your eyes that side of the grave and wake up and say, “It’s not as good as I thought it would be!” That will never and has never happened for any Christian!! So in those last moments for every Christian, including my Mom, we go from death to life. We go from hoping to possessing in full. We go from sort of knowing to full knowledge. We go from hope to full assurance. And you living for God now…in the here and now… in the end will not cause you to wonder if you wasted your life. You won’t be put to shame as if you’ve been tricked. You will possess all the Lord has in store for all of us…and I for one… plan to have hope be the last thing to go from my life! Thanks Mom for teaching me that lesson with cancer in your liver. I look forward to seeing her again!