I was sitting at the wrong gate waiting for a flight to Tulsa. When I realized that the passengers around me were talking about going to Lubbock (not Tulsa), I packed up my computer and the manuscript I was working on. The gentleman across the aisle from me said, “You don’t want to go to Lubbock?” I told him I wanted to go to Lubbock because that was home, but that I was headed to Tulsa today. I found out he has four children who range in age from 2 to 8 and he was eager to be home to interact with them. He volunteered that he was old to have such young children, but that he and his wife had just adopted the youngest two children less than six months ago. He told me they were trying to decide if they would take additional foster children, but he readily confessed that he didn’t mind having a lot of children in his home, he just didn’t want any of them to leave. We went on to talk about the Children’s Protective Services workers we knew and what a tough job they have and how much foster homes and adoptive homes are needed in Texas right now.

I don’t know how the situation is in the rest of the world, but in Lubbock, Texas, we need Christian families who will step up to the plate and provide foster homes and adoptive homes for children. I will be the first one to admit that foster care and adoption can be tough work for parents, but the rewards are tremendous. Many children who are in foster care and available for adoption don’t respond to typical parenting and need what I call “professional parenting.” Anyone who is committed and willing to learn can become a “professional parent.” It takes grit and determination, but all good parents have those qualities. If you have thought about adoption or foster care, please pray about it. We have literally thousands of children in Texas who need a family. If you are in the Lubbock area contact Stacy Parker at sparker@childshome.org. She will be more than happy to get you additional information. If foster care and adoption are not your ministry, please pray for our foster parents and kids in foster care. God is all powerful and he can work miracles in their lives.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 6th, 2008 at 11:49 am and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.