I wrote this post over a week before Father’s Day at 1 AM when I couldn’t sleep due to being very pregnant with Adelyn. She arrived on June 15th, so I’m posting a bit late since I was pretty busy on the holiday itself. 😉

Oh my. What a precious disaster foster care has wreaked on our hearts.

Over the course of the last year, we have had the truly divine privilege of raising a little one who was separated from her biological family. And, as the true rule-followers we are, we try to abide by everything we were taught in our foster training course. One ‘rule’ is to teach the child to call you by your name, preserving the titles of ‘mom’ and ‘dad’ in hopes of reunification one day. So we did just that!

For months, we tried to get our little girl to call us Ashley & Brandon. But she never would. Eventually she started saying “dada” on her own, attributing it to B. What!? When we found out we were pregnant, we started using the words “mommy and daddy” around the house a bit more. And they have since stuck like a PB&J.

The sweetest part of watching our little foster daughter call B “daddy” is the rest of what comes with a name. Since becoming “daddy” (pronounced da-DEE with emphasis on the DEE) to her, he has also become the focal point of many conversations. He has become who she looks for in photographs in our home. He is who she wants to see when she wakes up from naps and who she looks for out the window. He is who she called on her cucumber phone the other day in Trader Joes. In every moment, everywhere she wants her “daddy” to be there. She won’t stop talking about her “daddy'”.

(Whew, let me pause to say that this daddy has been amazing. I really can’t imagine a better one for our family. He points us to Jesus so, so much…as you are about to see.)

Bliss, anticipation, excitement, hope. All these words portray how little N searches for her “daddy” in the world around her. She has set her affection on him and she continuously wants to be with him.

As committed as we are to providing a home and family for N, we are still not her legal mom and dad. The future of her family is still uncertain. Yet, if she looks for her dad this way, how much more should our eyes search for our Dad? How much more should our joy hinge on being in His presence?

The hardest part of foster care is the uncertainty. But the uncertainty is also wonderful because it reminds me that a lot of life really is uncertain!! We just pretend it’s not. The people around me, the house I live in…it could all vanish. But my Dad won’t. He is constant. He is true. He is everywhere, in every moment of every day. And because He IS, living in an uncertain world is okay! More than okay!! We can even find joy in it as we cling to the Rock of Ages.

So, who are you looking for today? What or who are you hoping to see? My prayer is that our hearts would long to see our Dad. In every moment. Everywhere.