Big brown eyes and wild curly hair. He came to us straight from the hospital. Not because he had just been born, but because he had suffered injury at the hands of the woman that was supposed to love and care for him. He was just two months old and had more broken bones than I could count on my hand. We knew he’d only be with us short while. A sweet, young couple had already agreed to love and protect him and adopt him if the time came. We would just be a safe place for this little one to land until his new mommy and daddy could come. We fell in love instantly. His sweet disposition and calm nature despite his pain, blew me away. Although we were excited for his new life with his new parents, we were so sad to see him go. His sweet foster mom continued to send us pictures and update us on his progress. We reminisced about him over dinner and the boys talked about him often. It was as if he was still a part of our life. We were already making plans with the new foster family to get together to visit and catch up. Then, late one evening, I received a text from the foster mom explaining that without notice, the little guy had been removed. Nobody was fessing up and admitting to abusing him, so the judge returned him home. Just like that. No accountability for the biological parents, no investigation, nothing. She was distraught and in shock. We were speechless and afraid for his safety. There is not a day that goes by that we don’t think about that sweet baby with the wild, crazy hair. He weighs heavy on our hearts and we grieve for him and the rest of the children that fall prey to a broken system. We will continue to pray for his safety, his grieving foster mother, and healing for his broken home. Though we feel powerless, we can rest in the fact that The Lord loves him even more than we do and is pained even more than we are when this kind of tragedy happens. Though the pain and worry can be consuming, we try to focus on the importance of what we do. Even if these children get returned to harmful and dangerous situations, we know that they were loved and cherished every moment that they were in our house. The time here was not wasted.