With a teddy bear as her constant companion, a child thrown into a strange world experiences so many deep feelings as she cannot bring anyone along from her former life. What a comfort this story can be to children in foster care when new and unfamiliar people, foods, homes, smells, routines, and activities surround them. […]
My heart broke a little yesterday morning while sitting at my kitchen table during our county social worker’s monthly visit. Our agency’s case manager also met with us at the same time. She mentioned the likelihood of reunification and I nodded as usual, contributing to the conversation how the birth parent visits were going. The […]
Something about babies always makes people smile. Their supposed innocence, adorable baby rolls, toothless grins, contagious laughter, and the freshness of their smooth skin and simple being all in one miniature person. Joy. Smiles. Perfect strangers will reach out and touch (and even kiss) babies they have never seen before. Once, I had even witnessed […]
Wow, I could NOT put this book down! It was the perfect timing to begin…at the beginning of regular supervised visits with the birth parents of our new baby daughter. I had 3 hours during each visit of nearly-uninterrupted blissful time of reading. It only took two visits and some additional sporadic stolen hours over […]
“Are you open to keep her permanently if her parents end up not completing their plan?” After a momentary plight of speechlessness, I managed to stutter a few words to the new social worker that I could not give her a concrete answer. I really had to wrestle with this idea of permanence. After nine […]
We called it a sleepover. I felt uncomfortable when I overheard one of my sons tell someone that we were providing respite care when Little Boy C (LBC) was within earshot. To our new little guy, it must have sounded so technical. I insisted that he was with us for a sleepover, like any […]
If I speak with the wisdom of Keck and Kupecky, but do not have love, I become a nagging, droning horn in the distance. If I have the gift of Love and Logic, and know all mysteries and all knowledge of the effects of trauma on a young brain; and if I have all faith […]
Part 3: Love Hurts Love hurts…because sometimes God takes our loved ones away. Whether it be that dreaded day of goodbyes or intentional walls being put up, our hearts break when a relationship ends. Remember in Part 2 when I described how I feel safe? There is a hidden ache and fear that one day, […]
Part 2: Love Gets Too Attached Here is Part 1: Love Gives if you haven’t read it yet. Love gets too attached…because anything less is not true love. “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the […]
Before I got married, my future wife had asked me two questions: 1) Would you ever consider becoming an overseas missionary? And 2) Would you ever consider adoption? I said yes to both. What else could I say? I was in love. Little did I know, we would be exploring the idea of adoption a […]