A 60-year-old mother of four wanted to provide a temporary home for the most vulnerable new-borns in Manitoba but "God had different plans." Now, she has two newborns as permanent additions to her family. 

Bonnie Mueller, grew up in a family that fostered newborns and now she too is a foster mother to two beautiful girls. "It was born out of something that I saw in my own home," she says. 

Mueller says as she was retiring from a decades-long career in nursing, "It was a perfect time. It was a beautiful transition."

"We wanted to do emergency fostering, sort of what my mom did as well. When they are just born they need attachments made and need to be loved and cared for. The plan was to fill that little gap time until they are put into more permanent foster care," Mueller says.

Her family received their first newborn, Julie*, in 2017, she is now three-years-old. Mueller says, "With children, it's very unpredictable because our plan was not to keep any of them, but God had different plans for us." 

According to her, she wouldn't be able to do it without the supportive network of people around her, most importantly her biological children stepping up. 

"If we can just get them to love Jesus, oh my goodness we've done our job!"

Throughout her career, she saw children born of trauma, coming out of surgery, or abuse with no place to go. Children who were waiting for a home. "My faith was saying 'if you believe that God is the answer for everything and that Jesus says we need to take care of the widows and the orphans'; if that is true, then you need to do something about it.

"It's been a crazy journey," Mueller says. For her, the end goal is to show love and share the Gospel with these children. "If we can just get them to love Jesus, oh my goodness, we've done our job! 

"I watch Julie at Sunday school and even something as simple as when someone is not feeling well, she'll put her hands on them to pray. That's just the reflection of Jesus on somebody else. I can't wait to watch that unfold into a beautiful thing," Mueller says. 

"We are the same as they are, we are all adopted into God's family and this is the same."

Her second foster child was part of God's plan as well. "Last Christmas, they called me and asked me to take another baby. I said no at the time but, they needed someone with a medical background and no other places had worked out. I went to see her and fell in love as soon as I saw her.

"We've prayed over her as a church and as a family and we have given her to the Lord. We are excited about what He's going to do, right now, it looks like she's going to be a permanent placement too," Mueller says.

As a 60-year-old, she knows that to others this is an unexpected development in this stage of her life. "When somebody else says my age I get surprised. I don't feel like I'm that old, I feel very young," Mueller says.

To her, this is exactly what she's been called to do. "I look at them and think, 'we are the same as they are, we are all adopted into God's family and this is the same. 

"They are a beautiful gift. There's so much that we as a family can give to these little ones. If God is calling you, step up and take the challenge, despite your age," Mueller says.

*Julie's name has been changed for her protection as a minor in the foster system.