By Kayla DeKraker
Actress Jen Lilley has a heart for adoption, speaking about her own experience with adopting and the beauty she finds in it.
“I believe that Jesus is my standard,” she told WBRC News of her passion for foster care and adoption in honor of National Adoption Month. “I should be living more like Jesus. And Jesus actually always ran toward brokenness. He was like the Good Samaritan. He crossed the road. And Jesus loves to heal broken things. And so my husband and I wanted to get involved in foster care.”
During her conversation with the outlet, Lilley discussed the misconceptions many have about kids in the foster care system.
“I think that children in foster care are sometimes, or they are one of the most marginalized people groups in our nation,” she said. “It’s very under discussed. There’s a lot of myths and misconceptions surrounding foster care. So many Americans, 51% of surveyed Americans, actually think that children in foster care are bad kids, but the truth is, they’ve been through a lot of trauma, and they have actually been subjected to a system that is not their fault, but it’s based on decisions that other people made on their behalf.”
Related: Could STRANGER THINGS Star’s Recent Adoption Spark a Positive Gen Z Trend?
She added, “I really looked at foster care. I’m I have a heart for people who are experiencing homelessness. I have a heart for people who have been trafficked or are being trafficked, even prisoners, I have a heart for them, because I just don’t think that people choose this life. I think a lot of it comes from trauma, and if you look at all of these areas, what they have in common is actually interaction with foster care.”
The National Council for Adoption reported that last year, there were 328,947 entries into the foster care system.
“Our goal should be to reduce child maltreatment rates, reduce time spent outside permanent family care, and reduce timeframes and numbers of children awaiting adoption,” said Ryan Hanlon, NCFA president and CEO.
Lilley explained that the goal of foster care isn’t necessarily adoption but to reunite children with their families. If that cannot happen, then adoption takes place. That is what happened in her family as she and her husband followed God’s call to foster and eventually adopt their sons.
“When our sons, who are both biological brothers, when their cases went toward adoption, which we were thrilled about of course, then I realized that, okay, well, we are going to be parents,” she said.
Recently, Lilley posted sweet family photos with her adopted sons Kayden and Jeffrey, biological daughters Julie and Jacqueline, and her husband, Jason.
“I love being a mom,” she added in the caption.
Lilley and her husband truly live out God’s heart for the fatherless, as expressed in Isaiah 1:17: “Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.”
Read Next: Jenny Marrs Remembers Daughter’s ‘Miracle’ Adoption: ‘Lord Fought on Our Behalf’
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