A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling (Psalm 68:5 NIV).
When our children were seniors in high school, Robb asked me one day, “Mom, when Angi and I graduate, are you and Dad going to adopt?” I was astonished. Angi’s friend, Jennifer, now in college, had joined our family the previous summer, but adoption had never entered our minds.
I responded, “No, I don’t think so. Why do you ask?” Robb answered without hesitation, “Because there are lots of kids out there who need a good home.” I suppose Robb thought Donn and I were just too young to have an empty nest! I couldn’t get our conversation out of my mind, even though I had no peace about adopting a child.
My nephew and his wife in Maryland were doing foster care, and every time the family got together, he and I would end up talking for hours about foster parenting. I had always said I would never be a foster parent. I thought it would be too difficult to give the children up if they were returned to their biological family. But one day the Holy Spirit asked me, “What if God wants you to be a foster parent?”
I gulped as I remembered my promise to God in 1980 that I would do anything He asked me to do. If God wanted us to be foster parents, then saying, “I can’t” was not an option.
Heavenly Father, your Word says you are a father to the fatherless. Help us be willing to join you in opening our hearts and homes if you should ask. Amen.
