we crouch by his door, trent and i, and aiden is awake and standing by his bed, and we’re sneaking up on him, to surprise him with love and we count, 1, 2, 3, then open and pounce
and it’s amazing grace, the sound of a child laughing
and we do family time, all the time, because it’s all that matters.
but family is bigger than blood, and i look at my refrigerator, at the christmas photos people send us and their faces smiling and at the end of the day–after baths and snacks and bible story, crowded round wood-stove and climbing all over limbs and toes and guinea pig, too–it’s family that makes us worth something. it’s family that makes us worth anything.
and where are the children that no one wants? where are they on our fridges?
“i just turn away–i can’t stand to see a child in pain,” a friend tells me,
and i refuse to understand this. this turning away.
kasher crying and aiden running to him, and there is no greater mercy than a child’s heart, and we are to be like this. everyone taking care of each other.
and to be like children is to hear the crying, and to come running. fast. thinking nothing but how to get there more quickly.
76,000 homeless children are crying in canada. and no one is running.
let’s hear them. let’s see them. and let’s give them a place on our fridge.
because it’s amazing grace, these children, and at the end of the day, at the end of our lives, it’s all that matters.
us being family to the world.
(trent and i have gone through foster-care training, and are hoping to open our home when our boys hit the age of 10)
(joining with my dear friends at A Deeper Story to bring to you 12 Causes for Christmas… won’t you join in the blog hop below?)
Info re: Fostering in Canada…
Child Welfare League of Canada
Canadian Foster Family Association
Provincial and Territorial Association Sites
The Canadian Foster Parent
Alberta Foster Parent Association
Foster Care Alberta
Some Kick-A Articles on Fostering: