When Daniel was Five

When Daniel was five, this was our family




When Daniel was five, and homeschooled, he expressed great sorrow when he learned that not everyone was able to grow up with a mother, father, sister and brothers. He understood that family configurations could be different, but he was very sad to learn that some children don't have parents or grandparents to care for them. He thought we should try to help at least one child in foster care, or somewhere else in the world where the child did not have parents. We did try to do this, when Daniel was five, but our foray into adoption that time was short lived and ultimately only as a foster and transport family, as the Russian child moved on to a home who could better meet his special needs.
When Daniel passed, it was easy to see, what Daniel wanted us to do with the time we have remaining on Earth. Share the home and family we have with someone who also remains here on Earth.
The song below, talks about the need to do this. Presently, there are 123,000 children in United States foster care,many of whom are legally freed and or available for adoption. It is not easy. Children who have been orphaned through the deaths of their parents, or who have lost their families through their parent's addictions, may be slow to warm to say the least. Some, especially those from failed adoptions, often believe that no one will ever love them, or provide them with a permanent family. They will often test a family continually for a long time. Still, as I have often said, much of the real work of this world is done by ordinary people, who used their own limited resources and the their love to make a difference for one person. When adoption does work, it is no less miraculous than a child who comes to you through birth, as all children really come to you from God.


Steven Curtis Chapman

Steven Curtis Chapman and his wife, are also parents of a child who passed to Heaven in 2008. Maria Sue Chapman died in an accident, in May, 2008.
They are also both parents of biological children and children who came to them through adoption.