“Not flesh of my flesh, nor bone of my bone, But still miraculously my own. Never forget for a single minute, you didn’t grow beneath my heart, but in it.”

I’m not entirely sure who came up with that quote, but it sums up the joys of foster care about as well as I think can be done.

Right now there are 496,000 children in the U.S. foster care system and 130,000 of these children are waiting for families to adopt them.

There are 60 children in the foster care program in Dallas County alone that are without a home.

That number may be down from the 90 it was at a couple of years ago, but it is still way too many.

Well, really one is too many in this man’s opinion.

Not only does every child deserve a home, every child deserves a loving home.

If you have the time, money or even just a loving spot in your heart, think about becoming a foster parent.

I only wish I had known that the age to become one was so low early (you only have to be 19 with a steady job) so I could have looked into the process.

Sure, kids can be overanxious, a handful, hard headed and many other aggravating adjectives all seemingly at the same time, but they also love like no other person can.

Some of these children without homes have never been able to feel that love, or even heard the words ‘I love you’ uttered to them.

If you can help a child in need of a home, temporary or not, look into it.

As the adoption commercial so eloquently puts it, “You don’t have to be perfect to be a perfect parent.”

You just have to be willing to be one.