This is what my daughter said to my husband as he left the house to attend a foster care/adoption interest meeting at church. “Daddy, bring home an orphan.” What? Who says that? My husband left for the meeting, but I grilled her about this statement. Why? Because I’m intense like that, and I while it made me laugh, it also made me wonder what was cooking in that five-year-old brain of hers.

Lexi, why did you ask daddy to bring home an orphan? “Because I want one. Orphans don’t have homes or families or clean clothes to wear or nice people to take care of them. We have an extra room, but the orphan could share my room with me. We can give her food, clothes, and love. I want one…and I don’t have a sister of brother…and I want an orphan. Please?”

Ummm…you talk like the orphans are lined up in a row and you can just pick one and bring her home with you. Have you ever that? “Yes, mommy, at Target, back in the kids’ clothes section.” I love having a sarcastic kid. It’s so totally awesome.

So tell me more about what you’re thinking. “Mommy, if there are orphans in the world and they need homes, why can’t we bring one home? Aunt Amanda is bringing one home. [It’s true. My sister-in-law is in the process of adopting a child from Hong Kong.]” Think…think…think…what’s the right response here? I didn’t have a good comeback because the reality is…I really, really, really wanted my husband to come back from the meeting with an orphan, too! I’ve always wanted to be a foster parent or adopt so I’ve run through all the excuses people use to not provide foster care or adoption don’t really apply!

I’m working for a non-profit that provides counseling to children in foster care and seeks to provide resources to make sure all children have permanency in their lives. It’s a recurring theme for me. The most significant factor though is fear of the unknown. As my husband mentioned, how do we know the emotional needs of a foster child won’t impact our daughter. The truth is that it would impact her. It would impact us all, and the ultimate question is whether we are willing to move into unknown, uncomfortable territory? Do we have what it takes to care for orphans of the world?

So I told my husband to bring home ten orphans!

I don’t mean to make light of a very serious question though. Knowing that there are a lot of children in the world without families, why don’t we take them home? Lexi is on to something…