by Lisa
As I scrolled through Facebook the other day, I came across a picture that I haven’t been able to get out of my mind. Normally I scroll past everything but family pictures (especially political posts of any kind), but this time I stopped. On the left was a picture of an unborn fetus, and on the right was a picture of a child refugee. At the bottom was a statement that I don’t remember word for word, but the message was that it was hypocrisy to be pro-life yet support the new immigration ban. The picture kept appearing in my mind, and every time it did, my heart would ache. After a few days of being absolutely haunted by this image, I asked God to either help me forget it or help me understand why I couldn't.
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| Ash, King and Liv |
My husband and I love children and wanted to have several together (he got two when he married me, but we still wanted more); however, after a botched epidural, I reneged on my end of the deal. We still longed for a house full of children, and if I had my way, we would be overseeing an orphanage on some tropical island in the Caribbean. However, since that wasn’t a realistic option, we explored foster care. We felt God calling us down this path, and we wanted to be obedient. We didn’t get involved for the purpose of adoption, just to help kids who needed us for a short period of time. Six years later, we have a daughter and a son who we adopted through foster care and many other children who we get to love for as long as they need us— all because we chose to be foster parents.
Currently, there are almost 500,000 children in foster care in America. When kids are removed for whatever reason, less than 30% are placed with a relative. That means 355,000 little ones don’t have family members to stay with while mom and dad work to get them back. Of those in foster care, over 100,000 children are adoptable and waiting for a new family to give them love and stability. Although it can be shorter or longer depending on the case, the average stay in foster care is just shy of a year. https://www.fosterclub.com/article/statistics-foster-care
With this calling come emotional toil and great obligation, so many families burn out. Therefore, foster families are greatly needed.
A refugee is a term used to describe someone who flees one place to find safety in another, usually to escape war or persecution. It most commonly is used when that person escapes his native country, and that is the only way I have ever used it. Until now.
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| Baby A |
There are children who desperately need our attention, and they aren’t coming to our shores in boats because they don’t need to - they are already here. They live in our neighborhoods and go to school with our children. They may not be fleeing war or religious persecution, but they are escaping drugs, abuse, and neglect. They don’t want to leave mom and dad because they love them very much. Most think that the lifestyle they were subjected to is normal, so they are confused as to why they even have to be separated from their parents. Most arrive sad or angry. They usually all arrive hungry. But they are coming. Every day more and more are coming, but there are not enough homes to shelter them. Siblings are split up, older kids are put in group homes- simply because people aren't truly aware of the need for foster families.
The intention of this post is not to negate the importance of the refugee issue our world currently faces or to lessen the significance of the right to life. Every single life on this earth- unborn or born, American or Syrian, Christian or Muslim, white or Black, male or female, young or old- is just as important as the other. My God cares deeply about them all.
So I figured out why that picture stayed with me long after I saw it. It wasn't actually the images as much as it was God using the images to stir me to speak out. You see, just like the maker of the picture that I saw on FB had a cause, I, too, have a cause. Mine is foster care, so I write this to bring awareness about children who desperately need our help. If you happen upon this post, stop and ask yourself if there is room in your home and your heart for a child (or two or three) for just a little while. When you are ready, visit www.familiesfirstnetwork.org for more information on how to become a foster parent.
Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.
Psalm 82:3
Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for the orphans and widows in their distress...
James 1:27
