November is National Adoption Month!

I have a dear friend who has hosted an exchange student each year for the past five years or so. She and her husband are energetic, generous people — we truly could not have done as good a job with our kids had they not been so supportive.

This year the exchange program has not gone as well as in years past. They had to have a student moved to another home. When this happened, something prompted me to ask …

“Have you ever considered taking a teenager from the foster care system? You know, one that wouldn’t go back at the end of the school year?”

She smiled and nodded. She had thought of it, more than once. Maybe an eight year old or so. All she had to do was to convince her husband.

Now, her husband is a large part of the reason I think any foster kid would be lucky to have a home with them. This man is a harder worker — and more “handy” — than most other men I’ve known. He built their home nearly single-handedly, and is constantly looking for ways to improve their property. Any kid who lived with this couple would come away knowing the satisfaction of hard work.

But of all the reasons I pray for this couple to consider adoption, the most important reason is this: I see in my friend a natural mother, a nurturer who at present has no natural outlet for her gifts. It’s sad, really, for someone with so much love in her heart not to have a child with whom to share it.

And so, Lord, today I remember ALL those couples who are groping their way toward parenthood. Shed your divine light upon the way that you have planned . . . until every little soul in need of a family, has a forever home.

In the name of the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen!