It’s not the most straight-forward or easiest-on-the-heart way to go about adding children to your family: choosing to chase down children in the foster care system. And I mean “chase down” in the best possible sense of relentless loving care that won’t give up.
Some days it feels like a literal pursuit, like we need to convince the system that we’re serious. I can’t tell you how many times we have answered some form of this question from a case worker or guardian ad litem (aka CASA): are you sure you want to keep fostering-to-adopt . . . are you sure you want all three? Yes, we want them. Yes, we invite them into our family. Yes, we will show up at every court hearing and team meeting. Yes, we will pay for an attorney. Whatever we have to do. They can belong here.
It’s not an easy journey or one without heartache. Many foster mamas and daddy’s care for children deeply for years, but then the biological parents are able to get back on their feet and are given another chance. For those children, the literal physical chasing stops. (The caring and loving and praying doesn’t, of course.) So then, why do we continually chase, when the potential for heartache is so imminent? Where does the persistence come from?
Over and over again in The Jesus Storybook Bible, Sally Lloyd Jones writes about “a Never Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love.” She ties together the entire narrative of the Bible with God’s love for humanity. And it is marvelous how, over and over again, this same relentless love pours from His people to the little people in the foster care system. Yes, we will come after you. Yes, we will love you through years of dealing with trauma beyond your control. Yes, we will wait for years while the legal battles play out. Yes, we will chase you down and fight for you. We will not give up on you. We will come after you.
Compassion lived out daily, straight from the heart of God.
Relentless love for life.
This is our cry, our mantra, our passion and our call.
