Well, this is awkward...

Lets dive in to what I have experienced so far, being the introduction and the first session. First off Foster parents are in high demand here in Idaho, if you are interested check out the health and welfare website. So we watched a video about how the children really felt like nobody could love them, but they were glad that they came around to their foster/adoptive families, it was depressing, and heart warming. We asked questions about legality issues, background checks, safety and other concerns. It was quite the informative meeting.

There is also an organization called One Church One Child, very misleading name, since I am all for the separation of church and state, you know, being an Atheist and all trying to take away your rights to oppress all other religions into forcing your religions beliefs into law that conflict with everyone else, shame on me. It was included with all  the paperwork and is endorsed by H&W, I had to find out more, like how can they get away with this. Turns out it started by a religious guy, and then turned into a Community Group or Church. I am going to look into later to get my group the Idaho Atheists, West Valley Freethinkers involved in this and at least the minimum a support crutch for my fostering.

The title of this post suggests there is something awkward going to happen, well it is just around the corner. If you aren't atheist you probably don't understand what its like to be, alone...sure you can say oh I have had that experience all the time when I am Catholic in a room of Christians. Not even remotely close to the feeling of exclusion you get as an Atheist. No matter what religion you have, they all have God in common and hey if you're going to hell because you didn't choose THAT religion, at least you thought you were trying, A for effort! WOO! Atheist how ever have nothing in common with any religion. So situation slightly understood by all walks of life now.

We start the first session by introducing ourselves, drawing a picture on the back of our name card showing what is important to us, like an ice breaker. Well it started out with Hi I am blah blah blah, and my faith is important to me, and then my family. Hrmm interesting. Hi I am blah de derp de blah, and my faith is also important to me, oh yes and family. Great, our turn. Hi I am Morgan, and my family is important to me, my stick figures suck and this is supposed to be a dog, I also like music and school. Weird no faith. My Turn. Hi I am Chris, and I LOVE VIDEO GAMES, I drew an awesome controller! I also enjoy playing around with my family and having fun, my stick figures are way cool, here is me lifting my daughter over my head and playing airplane while my dog tries to jump in...oh yeah and here is the family cat way off to the side glaring at us for having fun. Nailed it. Next person, Faith, family, next, faith, family.....ok ok I get it Morgan and I have nothing in common with you guys way to single us out. I think there was enough murder/torture devices drawn on name cards to kill all 12 apostles.

The meeting then went on talking about taking the kids to church and using your church as a crutch and your church will be there for you and to use your church. Oh yes H&W will be there too, sweet I can use them. Then the meeting took an odd turn, they started talking about if you got a child that was NOT of your faith! GASP WHAT! NO! NOW WHAT!? Well um, accommodate their faith silly, you are not here to convert them, you are here to give them a safe home and keep them inside the community they are used to. So I think to myself dude peace of cake, I have every Sunday free, and I have no religion to convert the child to, I have a leg up on all these people! I am actually excited because now I have a reason to go to ANY church and learn from the inside what they are all about and what their way of thinking is, it will be a wonderful educational experience.

I am atheist, but I am not a monster, I will not tear down a child's belief system, they do enjoy believing in Santa, Easter Bunny and such, why ruin the fun. Now when they get older I will perhaps let them know that their way is not the only way, and that they could just be nice, out of the idea of being nice. I will save that for another time, point being. A small child who doesn't know any better is safe from my evil ways, and I am going to be more then happy to take them the church of their choosing, if they have none, great! I can also show them how ethical you can be to better humanity without a belief system. I hope.....

OK SO, big posts are out of the way....I hope, I thought this was going to be small but I had to vent, it really sucks being alone and not able to have the courage to say I AM AN ATHEIST. Thank you so much IA for being so supportive, you guys make me feel like I can do this, and this is the right thing to do. I just live in fear my application will be denied and I am unfit to be around children or some crazy thing because I put down that I am part of IA.