Why Foster to Adopt?

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

²⁵ On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

²⁶ “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

²⁷ He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

²⁸ “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

²⁹ But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

³⁰ In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. ³¹ A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. ³² So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. ³³ But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. ³⁴ He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. ³⁵ The next day he took out two denarii^[c] and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

³⁶ “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

³⁷ The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

When my wife and I decided to make that life changing decision to bring another child into our lives, we initially started looking into adoption.  We looked up a lot of local adoption agencies, contacted between six and eight of them, and and reached out to the only person we knew that had adopted for some input.  After narrowing down all of our options, the one I liked the best was about 2 hours away.  Ouch.

If we had stuck with this company, we would have to make the drive a few weekends in a row, take some classes, and then pay extra to have them travel to do the home study.  With all of this, they were still cheaper than all the other agencies we had contacted locally.

Which leads me to one of the biggest reasons we chose to foster to adopt:  cost.

The cost to adopt a domestic child would have eliminated almost all of our savings and we probably could not have afforded an international child.  Of course the government does help out with some of those costs, we could have applied for some grants, or even refinanced a car but ultimately, that seemed like a lot of work so we started exploring other options.

We did not know anybody that had fostered before.
(at least nobody that came to mind at that time)

So we looked up a few foster agencies and went to an info session to learn a little more.  After the info session, I think my wife and I knew that this is what we wanted to do.

To me, it’s exactly what Jesus was talking about in the parable above.  These kids have been put in such bad situations, they need a Good Samaritan, a neighbor, and someone to have mercy on them.

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The Full Series:

1. Quick Recap of How I Got to Where I Am Now
2. Why Foster to Adopt? (this one)
3. The Full Pre-License Process (future)
4. Foster Process – Phase I (future)
5. Foster Process – Phase II (future)
6. Foster Process – Phase III (future)
7. Scratching the Surface: Religion (future)
8. Overwhelmed (future)