Dancing for Foster Care!
We’re so excited to be participating in Dancing for our Heroes again in 2025! Finding someone to dance to raise money for your organization isn’t always an easy task, but our future campus foster parents, Bri and Nick DiCicco were quick to step in.
While they’ve been fostering for a few years now, they will be our newest family on campus once their new home is ready for them! They’ll be moving in with three of their own forever-kids and eager to fill more beds with foster children from across the Upstate.
While we’re fundraising for Dancing for our Heroes (which will help fund our mission for 2025), we wanted to take a moment to properly introduce our dancers. We asked Bri to walk us through why they decided to become foster parents, which is what started them on the path to move onto our campus.
Our “why” for becoming a foster parents will probably seem like a series of random events, but looking back, it’s clear to see it was the Lord preparing my heart and my husband’s heart in various situations over the course of 8 years.
In 2015, I went on a study abroad trip with my university to the Dominican Republic to work in many of the schools. It was an opportunity to see education in another country. But it also revealed to me the tough conditions that many lived in daily. I was in awe of how joyful the children were at school. It struck a nerve in my heart, and I came back to America feeling that I was meant to potentially adopt internationally one day. I didn’t know what it would look like, or when it would happen, but that trip was the first time the Lord softened my heart to the idea of foster care and adoption.
When Nick and I started dating a few months later, one of the first things I told him was that I had this push in my heart to care for vulnerable children. I was honest in that I didn’t know when or how, but I needed him to know it was important to me if we were going to progress in our relationship.
Fast forward to early 2022 when I had to go back to work postpartum and didn’t have anyone to watch Raelynn. A kind neighbor, Kieran Hooker, with two littles of her own, offered to watch Raelynn. While she was caring for Raelynn, they got a call for their first foster placement: a newborn baby boy! As the Lord had designed it, we got to walk alongside her family as they navigated their first foster placement— we donated breastmilk, brought meals, and offered any support we could.
That Summer, Nick (who is an ER nurse), was caring for two 8-week-old twins who were abandoned at the hospital under Daniel’s Law. They were both extremely malnourished, and one of them ended up dying in Nick’s arms. The other was placed into DSS custody for foster care. Nick came home that night absolutely heartbroken, and through tears, said he wished we were licensed to foster so that we could have taken emergency placement of that baby. Within a few moments, we started our application to become foster parents and submitted it before going to bed that night.
I don’t have a single why. I have a period of almost 8 years of the Lord pruning mine and my husband’s hearts towards a ministry that we are now absolutely in love with. With our hands open wide in obedience for His plans for our lives and little “yes’s” that added up, we’ve committed to foster care in every sense.
If you would like to cheer on Bri and Nick as they prepare to represent Calvary Home at Dancing for our Heroes, you can make a contribution to their fund by clicking the button below. Every dollar received is a “vote” towards Calvary Home in the People's Choice Award the night of the event AND goes directly to the care for the children on our campus. Thank you in advance for your support!
