Starved for Attention
Jason seemed to have an invisible sign around his neck that said, “Love me.” Maybe that’s why I did
I first met Jason while I was weeding a flower bed in my front yard in the late afternoon. A scrawny little blond boy with a serious expression approached me and asked, “Whatcha doin’?”
I replied I was pulling weeds, and then explained the difference between the flowers and weeds. He listened intently. Since I knew my next-door neighbor was a foster parent and had recently sent a child back, I asked the boy his name and whether he lived next door. I knew there were already four adopted children and another foster child there, and I knew this Christian family well. They loved the children in their care.
“I’m Jason. I’m the new foster kid.”
Jason volunteered even more information. He was four years old, his dad was in jail, and his sister Sarah lived in a different foster home too far away to see very often. He missed her. We kept talking as I weeded. Then my neighbor called Jason home and I went in.
It was the beginning of a precious relationship. A year later we went through the process of getting a foster care license to make it possible for Jason and his sister to move in with us. We later adopted them both.
