Each month, I have the privilege of sharing what’s been on my heart. This month, I wanted to offer that space to someone whose heart I consistently learn from — my friend and colleague Tom Lukasik. Tom and his wife Linda have lived the reality of foster care for over thirty years, and what he carries on the subject of reunification is something every one of us needs to hear. I think you’ll find his words both honest and hopeful.

More than a cliché

“Home, sweet home.” “Home is where the heart is.” “A home for every child.” You’ve probably heard all of these before. 

They may sound like clichés, the kind of phrases that show up on decorative signs and greeting cards. But I’ve come to believe they’re clichés precisely because they’re true. And as you’ve been reading Andrew’s articles these past several months, you’ve seen him unpack that truth beautifully: home is so much more than a house.

 

When our eyes were opened

My wife Linda and I have been married for 47 years. Like most people, we went through the earlier seasons of our lives without much awareness of what was happening in the foster care world right in our own community. 

That changed in 1994, when God drew us into this work — and what we found broke our hearts. Children were moving from house to house to house, some never landing in a place that felt like home for more than a few months at a time. Stability. Safety. Belonging. These weren’t things they could take for granted. They were things they were searching for, often without even having the words to name what they were missing.

From the very first placement, Linda and I made a decision: for however long a child was with us, we wanted them to experience home in the fullest sense of that word.

 

Every child wants to go home

Here’s something I learned very quickly, and it has never left me: every child who enters the foster care system still wants to go home. 

Not to a new home, their home. There may be pain there. There may be dysfunction. There may be real brokenness that led to a child’s removal in the first place. But to that child, it’s still home. The people there are still their family. And that longing doesn’t go away just because the circumstances are complicated.

This is why the primary goal of the foster care system is, and must remain, reunification. When it is safe and possible, restoring a child to their family is the right outcome. And it’s the one most children are quietly hoping for every single day.

 

Building bridges, not barriers

I won’t pretend this is easy. It can be tempting, genuinely tempting, to see biological parents as the problem or even the enemy. And from their side, it can feel just as natural to view foster families with suspicion. Mistrust can run in both directions. 

But building a bridge instead of a wall is always worth the effort. Scripture speaks directly into this. Galatians 6:2 calls us to, “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” And Romans 12:18 encourages us, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.”

Reunification often begins the moment someone chooses compassion over conflict. When foster families and biological families can learn to see each other as partners in a child’s story rather than opponents, something remarkable becomes possible.

 

The hardest goodbye

One of the most important things we can do as foster parents is make sure the children in our care know — truly know — that they are loved. Loved by us, however temporarily. And loved by a God who has never stopped thinking about them.

But loving a child well also means being willing to let them go. That is the unique challenge of foster care, and I won’t minimize it. I have cried more times than I can count saying goodbye to children who had become part of our lives. 

It doesn’t get easier just because you know it’s right. What I’ve learned over the years, though, is this: it is worth enduring that heartbreak if it means a child gets to go home. The pain we carry when a child leaves is a small thing compared to the healing that becomes possible when a family is restored.

 

Every month Is reunification month

May is National Foster Care Awareness Month. June is National Reunification Month. These are meaningful designations, and they deserve our attention.

But here’s what I find myself praying: that we wouldn’t need a designated month to remember why this work matters. That foster care and reunification would be on our hearts in July and October and February just as much as they are right now.

At 4KIDS, we are committed to exactly that — a year-round pursuit of homes, healing and restored families. We believe every child deserves to belong somewhere. We believe every family deserves a fair chance at restoration. And we believe that the Church, God’s people, showing up consistently and with love, is one of the most powerful forces for change in a child’s life.

My hope and prayer is simple: may every month be foster care awareness month. May every month be reunification month. And may we, as followers of Christ, keep building the bridges that bring children and families home.

 

Since September 2024, Andrew Holmes has been serving as the President of 4KIDS–a ministry that provides Hope, Homes, and Healing to kids and families in crisis. Learn more and catch the vision of a home for every child at 4KIDS.us.

For more Good News, read the GOOD NEWS June 2026 Issue at: https://digital.goodnewsfl.org/2026/june/#1