"Love believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things"
-1 Corinthians 13:7
Any time we choose to love another person, we believe things, hope things and endure things.
This is true when we love a parent, a friend, or a child- whether they are in foster care or not.
When you love another person, you don't pause to question whether it will be worth it or how long you will get to love them. You believe, you hope, and you endure all things.
I remember the exact moment I met Joshua when we were both 18. I can still see my parents out the window as I boarded the bus on our college campus and extended my hand to the stranger who would become my husband. Our friendship began that day, and my love for him deepened a year later as I witnessed how he believed, hoped and endured on my behalf as I grieved my father's death.
18 years later he believed, hoped and endured with me as we said goodbye to a little girl. We believed that we were supposed to say yes to loving her regardless of how long she would be placed in our home, we hoped for the stability of her father, and we endured grief when she was removed from our home.
During her speech at our wedding my Mother said, "you two are experiencing an incredible love today but there is another great love you will experience when you meet your children". I can picture walking along the river in San Antonio with Joshua six years later when I was pregnant with our first child and feeling an anxiety about what it would be like to add this new person into our life. I labored with belief, hope, and endurance and welcomed her with love. I remember standing on the other side of the front door of her two month old brother's foster home without ever having seen a picture of him and after another two years of belief, hope, and endurance, standing in a court room on his adoption day with the same depth of love we have for his sister.
I can hear the car seat making contact with the wood floor in our entry way for the first time a year ago as the social worker set down the ll month old who would become a daughter. I can see the bright brown eyes and the mouth that would call me Mama.
I would choose those parents and that husband and these children again and again.
Knowing that all love requires belief, hope, and endurance, I will welcome the next child who enters our home, because it is always worth it.
As we labor to love with the love we ourselves have received from Jesus, we do so from within a cloud of uncertainties and unknowns, but with one guarantee: it's worth it. Always."- Jason Johnson
