Life with Joshua Part I

I have written very little on the weblog about life with a baby in the house. I will start by sharing the column that will appear in this week's church newsletter:

I thought it sort of poetic that on the day after Pastor John had returned to Austin to finalize plans for his first daughter’s wedding that some people from Methodist Children’s Home arrived at our home to deliver to Alisha and me an 11 month old baby boy. Joshua arrived Friday, August 11^th, entering our lives at a whopping 25 pounds.

Joshua is a foster child placed through Methodist Children’s Home’s new outreach office here in Corpus Christi. MCH normally takes foster children voluntarily from parents who can’t currently cope with the demands of parenting or whose circumstances make being a good parent impossible. The goal of MCH is to return children to a loving and secure environment with their birth parents whenever possible. This may not be possible with Joshua and he may remain with us.

I am sure you will hear me reflect on how life has changed for Alisha and I since Joshua joined us. However, I want to take this opportunity to talk about how important foster parenting is. Jesus says in Mark’s Gospel:

“Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.”

I hear a lot of talk lately about the value of a life. Many of my Christian brothers and sisters are quite passionate about abortion and stem-cell research, and those are important topics to discuss, but very little attention is paid to the children among us who have very little hope of having a full and abundant life. There are more children than you can imagine who live in situations of abuse or neglect and children who have no one at all to love them. There are children who begin their fragile lives addicted to drugs and alcohol. Some can recover with a lot of love and attention and some spend their entire lives suffering from something that happened to them before they were even born.

I have mentioned in a sermon that often with problems this large we are overwhelmed and do nothing. The words of Jesus I mentioned before are just a little different in Matthew’s Gospel where he says:

Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.

Not all the children, just one. When and where just one child is safe and warm, when and where just one child is told, “I love you and I am going to take care of you,” then and there we are welcoming God.

Alisha and I are responding to God by opening our hearts and home to share God’s unconditional love with Joshua. We thank you for all the love and support you have already poured out upon us that we may feel loved as we are loving him.

peace,

will