God’s grace and unconditional love are most often on display when the lives of two people intersect.
Such is the story of Cecil and Boone Stokes. Cecil is a successful television and film producer of over 500 shows. He had it all.
Well, there was one unfulfilled dream. At the age of 12 years old, God planted the desire in Cecil’s heart to be a father someday, specifically the father of an adopted son.
Years later, Boone was one of over 400,000 kids in the foster care system. Families that took him in felt that his emotional stability was unmanageable. One family after another bagged up his stuff and sent him off to the next family.
For Boone, each failed foster home was another layer of rejection that overwhelmed him with loneliness. He describes the experience as living in an old, empty, creaking house with no light and no sun, just darkness.
Cecil remembers Boone’s adoption profile being the longest one he’d seen. It listed a long array of problematic – even dangerous – behaviors. As Cecil read the profile, he heard God say, “This is not who he is.” And so he proceeded with the adoption process.
Boone is now in 6th grade. Cecil and Boone both describe their time together so far as “brutiful” – the beautiful and the brutal.
Some days connecting was so difficult that Cecil would end up face down on the floor crying after Boone went to bed. But God’s grace eventually started to break through. Boone says, “My dad’s love showed me he was trying to help me and not to hurt me.”
The truth is, almost every story of adoption could be described as “brutiful.” Whether you’re a foster parent, an adoptive parent – or even a biological parent who is struggling – if you’re in the trenches, it can be tough to enforce discipline while displaying grace to a child who’s acting out.
Cecil and Boone are with us to share their story of adoption and God’s grace on our Focus on the Family Broadcast “Boone and Me: A Foster Adoption Story.” Listen on your local radio station, online, on Apple Podcasts, via Google Podcasts, or take us with you on our free phone app.
They’ll offer hope and encouragement to every parent involved in the “brutiful” process of adoption.
November is National Adoption Awareness Month. The number of children who are in the foster system is about 440,000. That’s far too high, but the challenge is very solvable. Taking care of widows and orphans is a biblical call to every person. God plants the lonely in loving families. Just ask Boone and Cecil!
I’d like to extend an invitation for you to become a special partner with us through our monthly “Friends of Focus on the Family” program. Your pledge of regular financial support will help connect families with resources like our Wait No More program to help facilitate foster care and adoption, and to support foster children and families. Thank you for touching others with the love of Christ. To make your pledge, or for more information, visit our website or call 1-800-A-FAMILY (232-6459).
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