Caring Heart: Missed Holiday from Home

Whether a holiday or a birthday or a graduation, anyone who does foster care for very long will see this happen to the child in their care.

Missed Holiday from Home 

Nothing came. Just like Thanksgiving.  Just like her last birthday, and every Valentines Day. And now this holiday too.  Couldn't her parents at least manage to send a card?  She doesn't need a present.  She doesn't need much.  But a simple card that acknowledged their connection to her would mean so very much to her.  Oh, she's tough.  She tries to pretend she doesn't care.  But the dame is still real to that small child within her that still wishes she were like everyone else.  Still wants to believe, somewhere deep inside, that the people who gave birth to her remember her and care.  Don't let her build too much scar tissue around that fragile heart.  She needs that heart, and the more walls she builds around it, the harder it will be for her to open it up one day.  Help her find the strength to keep her heart safe and open to see a better day.  Help her parents remember to reach out, to value her.  Protect and fill her heart, Lord.  

Excerpted from "The Caring Heart Speaks: Meditations for foster, kinship, and adoptive parents" by Gail Underwood Parker