Garrett and Brittany Mooneyham have been foster parents for almost a year. They moved to Coyote Hill Foster Care Ministries in the spring of 2020 and live in The Petersheim Home. Brittany shares their story.
Garrett and I have been married for about four and a half years. We moved to Harrisburg from Springfield, Missouri, where we were both raised and our family still resides. We have one son, Mason, who is two-years-old. Prior to coming to Coyote Hill, we struggled with contentment in our jobs, as we felt that we weren’t doing what God called us to do.
We knew from the very beginning of our relationship that one day we wanted to foster, but it took us a while to build up the courage to start. We went to church with Brian and Mandy Wallace, former Home Parents in the Atherton Home, so we had a few meetings together to talk about foster care in mid-Missouri. We had no intentions of moving away from Springfield and starting our foster care journey with six children! Thus, when Brian mentioned Coyote Hill Foster Care Ministries, our immediate reaction was, “No way could we do that.” But God had other plans….
As soon as Garrett and I got in the car, after that particular conversation with Brian, we looked at each other and said, “Let’s open our hearts to this.” We prayed and gathered more information and quickly realized this is where we are supposed to be.
God’s timing was perfect. We moved to Coyote Hill Foster Care Ministries at the beginning of March of 2020. About a week later everything shut down due to the pandemic. We have been shown time after time that this is where we are supposed to be at this point in our lives. We started by serving as relief staff for a short three weeks before moving into The Petersheim Home. Two weeks later, a sibling group of five was brought to our door step who are still with us. We firmly believe that God’s timing was perfect in all of this. We are so thankful for all of the support and love that we have been shown in our time here.
We are blessed with an amazing group of children in our home, whom we love so much. We have been able to do so many fun things together. On multiple occasions, we’ve taken all of our kids to Springfield to visit our families. This has been amazing because we are able to show our children what a functional, extended family looks like. They are shown so much love and support from our family.
Over Christmas break, we were able to travel to Colorado. It was an unforgettable trip! Most of our kids had never left the state of Missouri. We stayed in the mountains for a week, going snow tubing, enjoying a Christmas Eve sleigh ride and spending time with our family.
It has been amazing to see all of the growth in our children through all of this. We have been able to have many conversations with them about salvation and Christ’s love for us. In January, one of our boys made the best decision he will ever make. He accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior! Knowing that the children are learning and their hearts are stirring is the greatest thing. That is a big reason why we are here. We are thankful to have been given the opportunity to share the gospel with our kids and help them come to know Jesus Christ.
