“Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.” ~ James 1:27 (NLT)
My husband and I felt a calling to live out this verse early in our marriage through foster care. This calling grew in my heart many years until, in 2011, we finally began the licensing process for foster care in the state of Michigan. It was a daunting, invasive process, but six months after we began, our license was opened, and we welcomed our first two little girls into our home.
Our three adopted children were not orphaned by the loss of their birth family, as many people would look at orphanhood. They were orphaned by the state of Michigan, which decided that it was in the best interests of these very young children to no longer live with their birth mother and father. It is a sad circumstance that is all too common in the foster care system. In cases like these, the trauma that these children live through shapes their young minds into the people they become as they grow up without a birth family, and in many cases, spend their remaining childhood years as “foster kids” who don’t feel like they really belong anywhere.
Through our foster care and adoption journey, we connected with countless foster families and foster youth with stories of both sadness and hope. Unfortunately, for many youth in foster care, their time in the system ends when they “age out” at 18 and walk away having never been adopted. According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation, only 1 in 4 children leaving the foster care system in 2019, the last year for which the data has been compiled, was adopted. Those who aren’t, like my heroine Julia in A Heart to Cherish, are much more likely to experience homelessness, drug and alcohol abuse, incarceration, or pregnancy by the age of 21.
Part of the reason I wrote A Heart to Cherish is to raise awareness of the great need for foster and adoptive families. In 2019, 122,637 foster children were available for adoption in the United States. 1 in 10 kids in the foster care system have been waiting 5 or more years to be adopted. There are so many things we can do to support foster youth and love them into adulthood. These children need to learn that they are loved, valued, and accepted for who they are so they always know they have a place where they belong.
Not everyone is called to be a foster or adoptive home, but we can all partner with families that are. Consider donating meals or clothing to foster families, spending time helping them clean or grocery shop, fill out background check paperwork so you can provide respite care to children they take in, or even come sit with the children in their homes so they can get things done without having to worry about what the children are doing for an hour or two. These are all things that would have blessed me tremendously as a foster parent. After all, where would any of us be if God hadn’t adopted us?
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.” Ephesians 1:3-6 (NKJV)
All statistics taken from The Latest Stats on Adoptions From Foster Care | KIDS COUNT Data Center
Everyone leaves…including God.
That’s how Julia Price feels after years of being passed over in foster homes. All she has ever wanted is a family, but when she finds herself pregnant and homeless, her dreams seem further away than ever.
Strait-laced good guy Alex Morgan has waited his entire life for the woman God has prepared for him. When he makes it his mission to help Julia, he wonders whether she could be that woman. But why would God lead him to a pregnant non-believer?
As Julia struggles with issues of self-worth and trust, can she open her heart to both God and Alex? And can Alex trust their relationship to the One who holds Julia in His hand?
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Contemporary Christian romance author Judith McNees lives in southwestern Michigan with her husband and four of their seven children, along with their three dogs. Her family loves to travel together, but she still believes that her home state is one of the most beautiful states there is. She is a proud stay-at-home mom, stepmom, foster mom, adoptive mom, and grandma, which gives her plenty of fodder for her writing. She holds a B.A. in English from Western Michigan University and is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers. You can connect with her on her website, Facebook, Instagram, Goodreads, and Amazon.