Trust That God Has Everything Under Control!

I was browsing through some news stories about foster care situations. This particular story is approximately one year old now and is about a man from Independence, MO, Gary Stocklaufer, who weighed 500 lbs. He and his wife are state certified foster parents and had adopted one son (Bobby) and were fostering a baby of their cousins. The mom of the baby boy (Max) had signed over parental rights to Gary and his wife Cynthia and they had hopes of adopting him. They thought that the process would be a quick and easy one since they had already adopted one son. But that is not what happened.

The couple had the baby for only 3 months before a family court judge ruled that Gary wasn't fit enough to be an adoptive father due to his weight (this according to Gary). According to KMBC-TV Channel 9 out of Kansas, MO, the judge that ruled this man to be an unfit adoptive father is the same judge who allowed the adoption of their other son just seven years ago (this story is now one year old). Gary weighed around 500 lbs. at that time as well.
In August of 2007, Gary Stocklaufer was offered and underwent free gastric bypass surgery in hopes of losing enough weight to be allowed to finally continue with the process of adopting baby Max. By January, Gary had lost approximately 200 lbs.

Baby Max was finally ordered to be returned to the Stocklaufers by noon, Dec. 31, 2007, but due to the Guardian Ad Litem being out of town, the transfer did not happen. The foster family with which baby Max had been staying did not want to give him up and wished to adopt him themselves.

Finally, in January of 2008, The Stocklaufer's were once again awarded custody of baby Max. In his ruling, the judge said it is "in the child's best interest" that the Stocklaufers "be permitted to adopt him."
The judge in this case made the statement that the removal of baby Max from the Stocklaufer's home over the summer did not have anything to do with Gary's weight. The judge said that the removal happened because "the couple did not follow proper procedures when moving the child into Missouri from another state."

I have read many mixed opinions from the view points of other people as I was looking up information for this story. But what moved me the most was the fact that this story is not all that uncommon. I'm not talking about the part of how Gary felt discriminated against because of his weight. There are so many other reasons for adoptions to be all of a sudden cut off, or foster children suddenly moved from one home to another, even when the family of the initial home wanted to keep the child. The foster system is very complex and too often it seems as though the system is working against what is best for children in particular cases. I'm happy for the Stocklaufer's family to have been finally allowed to continue on with adopting their beloved little baby Max. I feel sorry for the other foster family who took care of Max during this ordeal as they too fell in love with him and wanted to adopt him. The world of foster care and adoption is very often full of pain as well as love and happiness. I guess we just have to do our part the best that we know how and trust that God has the rest under control, even when we don't understand. At least that is how I choose to believe!

The information for this story came from the following sources:
http://www.kmbc.com/news/14994541/detail.html
http://www.kmbc.com/news/13971751/detail.html
http://www.kmbc.com/news/13763346/detail.html
http://poundpuplegacy.org/node/13888