Lent

Practicing compassion starts young

Special to The Compass

	A Lenten series on Reconciliation

Foster care requires compassion for all the people involved:

• The birth parents who are giving unselfishly so the child may be given a life that they are not able to provide;

• The adoptive parents who wait patiently and anxiously to form that family that is so desired;

• The child who waits to become part of a permanent, loving family.

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The foster family sees the pain and frustration of both birth families and adoptive families. Birth families must let go of the child in hope of a better situation. Adoptive families open their hearts to the child not knowing if they will become part of the family.

The foster family makes sacrifices in their own life to provide care for the child. Foster families open their homes and more importantly their hearts to everyone involved.

Caring for a foster child takes an unselfish commitment as well. The time spent caring for the child is not for oneself. It is done in the hopes that this child ends up with a permanent, loving home.

The love spent caring for the child opens oneself up to the attachment that must be broken when the child leaves the foster home.

The attachment between a child and the caregiver is a natural happening. The child needs to be in a trusting environment where they get all their needs met. In foster care the caregiver must provide loving care knowing the child will eventually be moving to a different home.

Foster care is something that must come from the heart.

(The writers are foster parents with Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Green Bay. They asked to remain anonymous.)