Your Children Are Not Yours.

Mary Grace is a foster parent and a homeschooler. She's writing a series of posts on why families should consider fostering. One of the ideas parents put forth as to why they can't foster is that the children wouldn't be "theirs" under the system:

"The difference between God's idea of loaning and the state's idea of loaning is that God doesn't give you a timetable for how long you have to look forward to those little mouths at the table. If you are truly blessed, it will be until the day you see them walk down the aisle. Or until you die. You will never deal with a teenager who rebels and walks away from you for good. You will never be one of the crushed souls who visits at grave to mark birthdays and holidays. You will never have a child who speaks to you only on the rarest of occasions.

You may get this. God willing, you will be so blessed.

But you may not be counted among these parents. You may be one of the ones who has loved and who seems to have lost.And if you knew right now, this instant, that the little one who is laughing down the hall at this instant was going to completely walk out of your life in fifteen years, would you love him any less today?"

It's a good post. You should pop by and read it in its entirety.