Yesterday was a day of liberation for a young boy in foster care and his loving foster parents, a family that I know and love. This young boy has suffered something awful in his first weeks and months of life, smothered and near death in a hospital. By what I can only understand as Providence, he came into the care of an older couple in the family — who were neighbors to a married couple who have long longed for a child. They loved him back to life, and brought him into a world of support that is the best of Christianity. Even with a network of support, I know it was a grueling process, all the while knowing this boy they are completely in love with could wind up back in a dangerous situation. That’s no longer a fear. After a number of rounds and lots of drama, parental rights were severed yesterday. I pray for his birth parents, but am grateful dear Noah is now free for adoption by his mother and father. As Pope Francis talked about earlier this year in talking about St. Joseph, it is not simply biology that makes a father:
To bring a child into the world is not enough to say that one is also their father or mother. “Fathers are not born, but made. A man does not become a father simply by bringing a child into the world, but by taking up the responsibility to care for that child. Whenever a man accepts responsibility for the life of another, in some way he becomes a father to that person.” I think particularly of all those who are open to welcoming life by way of adoption, which is such a generous and beautiful, good attitude. Joseph shows us that this type of bond is not secondary; it is not second best. This kind of choice is among the highest forms of love, and of fatherhood and motherhood. How many children in the world are waiting for someone to take care of them! And how many married couples want to be fathers and mothers but are unable to do so for biological reasons; or, although they already have children, they want to share their family’s affection with those who do not have it. We should not be afraid to choose the path of adoption, to take the “risk” of welcoming.
Noah’s parents are just one couple that can testify that Naomi Schaefer Riley’s book, No Way to Treat a Child, gives voice to a world that most Americans don’t know but that many children and adults who want to change their lives agonize through. Thanks be to God that the system mostly worked this time, at least in the end, and this couple had the perseverance and support to get their beloved Noah the forever loving home he deserves.
Kristen Meyer wrote a little bit about her family’s story recently here.
You might also be interested in this report from Naomi Riley, Honor Your (Foster) Mothers and Fathers.