Her Name

Fostering can reveal God’s love–the love of THE perfect Father–in ways that no other role has the privy of experiencing. A FaithBridge foster dad shares about how a nameless, 4-day-old baby girl taught him how God designed and defines her and every other precious child who is one of the over 400,000 in foster care on any given day in this country. This story posted here was originally shared on the Mt. Bethel Church blog with other stories that have come out of their Called to Care Foster Care Ministry.


By Mark Taylor

She just moved in last Wednesday. She sleeps a lot and doesn’t make much of a fuss.

She is our newest foster girl, only four days old when our case worker brought her to our house. All she has is a blue bag from the hospital and two boxes of formula. That’s it.

We were told her name was one thing, but when she showed up, the bracelet on her wrist had something different on it. We knew that her mom wasn’t able to care for her, so she would live with us as our daughter until her mom could get back on her feet. That is how foster placements typically work.

Today, just shy of a week after she came to live with us, we received word that they don’t really even know her name.

When I heard this, I felt the anger welling up from within me. This eight-pound baby deserves a name. She deserves love and cuddles. She deserves to know her mother and her father. She deserves to be picked first at recess and to pick her first boyfriend. But first, she needs a name.

While society seems to have let her down at this moment, I am reassured by something I’ve learned as of late. Her real identity comes from God. He knows her name. He knows how many hairs are on her head. He made her by hand and wants a relationship with her.

Society tends to fill in the blanks in life. If you don’t know who you are, other people will tell you. As she falls asleep each night, my prayer is that she grows to know who she really is. I hope she knows that God loves her more than she could imagine. And I hope she forgives the people around her for not even knowing her name.