Foster care and adoption are hot topics in today’s Christian church, for good reason. God calls us in the Bible to care for the “orphans and widows” and today’s orphans are the thousands of American kids in foster care who, in many cases, have living parents who cannot care for them. Often, relatives of these children step in to care for them, but sometimes that doesn’t work out either. In a recent story on Love What Matters, an aunt who calls herself “TW” to protect her family’s identity, told a touching, miraculous foster care story involving her niece and nephew.
She begins by talking about the day they came into her home:
Three years ago, our niece and nephew were removed from their home. I remember getting the call from their bio mom. She was panicked. ‘They’re taking the kids. Can you take them?’ We knew it was coming. Things hadn’t been right for a long time.
‘Yes, I’ll take them,’ I said. Immediately wondering, ‘Where will they sleep? How long will they be here? Can I handle this?’
I called friends and family. Some supported our decision, some strongly suggested we let someone more qualified step in.
They came with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Our bible study group gave us money to buy them diapers, clothes, toys, toiletries.
Though she wanted to care for them, TW says that within a “week of sleepless nights,” she felt that God was calling her to let them go into foster care. So, she called their caseworker who found them a placement.
“My voice was shaking,” she says, “I felt like I was failing them. At the same time, I felt the Holy Spirit telling me to trust him.” TW continues,
The case worker came a few days later to take them to their new placement. The things my friends had bought for them were packed up in plastic containers. I made a small photo album of all the pictures I could find of my niece and nephew with family and gave it to my niece. I hugged my niece and told her, ‘I love you, I will never give up on you, I will always be in your life, God has a plan, we have to trust him.’
I had no idea what would happen to them. She was 6. A 6-year-old shouldn’t have to think so deeply.
Though TW worried about her niece and nephew, just two and six years old, she was so right to trust God, and she soon saw his plan for them unfolding beautifully. She goes on:
I asked the social worker to please tell the foster parents that I’d like to have contact with the kids… I had no idea how anything worked. I prayed and begged God to protect them.
I got the call from their foster mom a few weeks later. She was going to let me see the kids. I was ecstatic.
