But I will tell you who is. The mom who chooses to be a foster parent. The mom who opens her home and her heart to a young life that isn't hers. A life she has no claim on outside of the small amount of time that she can offer consistency, safety and unconditional love. And a young life that she will eventually have to return to an uncertain future. That's brave.
Brave is the mom who waits for 13 months for her international adoption to go through. Who brings home a child with numerous, costly health issues. Issues with no cure. Who feels the call to the orphan crisis across the vast ocean of literal space, of language barriers and 10 years of experience with rejection and hopelessness.
That's brave.
And even braver, the mother who does this not once, but twice, three times. Over and over. Loving the unloved. Giving the gift of hope. Carrying the burden for children too young for the weight on their shoulders. Wondering every day if she loved enough, if she did enough. That's brave.
No, I'm not so very brave for embracing the gift of bearing children, crazy maybe, brave no. But I hope one day, that I can make that claim too. For these little ones are near and dear to the heart of Jesus. And if I don't do it, who will?
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
Such good stuff. The care team that I'm on met with a foster mom Monday night who is a single mom with 4 foster kids in her care. She's been doing this for 8 years (with a full-time job that she takes the bus to downtown) & sometimes she has up to 6 kids! Their stories are gut-wrenching. I could have stayed at her house all night listening to her talk. I can't wait to see her again this Saturday. When people look at me & think I've done something great by adopting Anna (yea, she's pretty great & it's hard sometimes), but I just want to scream & say, "That lady. That one over there. She is the hands & feet of Jesus. She gets God's heart." I hope one day my "little" family will be that kind of brave. Can you imagine if we all were? What a world this would be.
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