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Their Faces Shone: A foster parent's lessons on loving and letting go
"I need help," I whispered, not sure if I was talking to myself or to God. "I don't want to let her go."
After her daughter was born, Kate Rademacher desperately wanted another child, but her husband did not. Following years of negotiation, the couple decided to become foster parents. What began as an uneasy compromise turned into an authentic calling and a deep love for their two-year-old foster daughter. When the girl transitioned back to her biological family, Kate thought she had learned the lesson in loving and letting go. But when an unexpected crisis occurred, Kate realized the lessons in how to love, accept, surrender, and forgive were only just beginning. In this poignant story, the author explores the question of where family begins and ends, and how things change when we invite strangers--with complicated stories and baggage--into our lives. For people who have considered becoming foster parents, many worry about the emotional risks involved. Before Rademacher's foster daughter arrived, she shared these concerns; she was deeply afraid of the heartbreak that seemed likely, and she worried that fostering could threaten her own family's peace. Rademacher's story is an insightful and ultimately hopeful examination of whether it's possible to love and let go without bitterness. With self-effacing humor and honesty, Rademacher describes how the experience of fostering impacted her marriage and her biological daughter and changed their lives forever.
After her daughter was born, Kate Rademacher desperately wanted another child, but her husband did not. Following years of negotiation, the couple decided to become foster parents. What began as an uneasy compromise turned into an authentic calling and a deep love for their two-year-old foster daughter. When the girl transitioned back to her biological family, Kate thought she had learned the lesson in loving and letting go. But when an unexpected crisis occurred, Kate realized the lessons in how to love, accept, surrender, and forgive were only just beginning. In this poignant story, the author explores the question of where family begins and ends, and how things change when we invite strangers--with complicated stories and baggage--into our lives. For people who have considered becoming foster parents, many worry about the emotional risks involved. Before Rademacher's foster daughter arrived, she shared these concerns; she was deeply afraid of the heartbreak that seemed likely, and she worried that fostering could threaten her own family's peace. Rademacher's story is an insightful and ultimately hopeful examination of whether it's possible to love and let go without bitterness. With self-effacing humor and honesty, Rademacher describes how the experience of fostering impacted her marriage and her biological daughter and changed their lives forever.
200 pages, Paperback
Published August 11, 2020
1 person is currently reading
9 people want to read
About the author
Kate H. Rademacher
3 books13 followersKate Rademacher grew up outside of Boston and now lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina with her family.
In her debut memoir, "Following the Red Bird: First Steps into a Life of Faith" (2017), Kate describes how she came to embrace a relationship with God after maintaining a pick-and-choose approach to spirituality for many years. Married to a devout Buddhist, Kate was sitting on a cushion at her husband’s meditation center one day when Jesus appeared unexpectedly in her consciousness and called her to follow him. She was baptized a year later to the day.
Kate’s second book, "Their Faces Shone: A Foster Parent’s Lessons on Loving and Letting Go" was released in 2020 by Light Messages Publishing. In the book, Kate explores the question of where family begins and ends, and how things change when we invite strangers --with complicated stories and baggage -- into our lives.
A graduate of Wesleyan University in Connecticut and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Gillings School of Global Public Health, Kate’s professional work is focused on international public health. She is currently working on her third book, "Reclaiming Rest: The Promise of Sabbath, Solitude, and Stillness in a Restless World," which will be published by Broadleaf Books, an imprint of 1517 Media, in 2021.
You can learn more about Kate’s work and connect with her online at www.katerademacher.com
In her debut memoir, "Following the Red Bird: First Steps into a Life of Faith" (2017), Kate describes how she came to embrace a relationship with God after maintaining a pick-and-choose approach to spirituality for many years. Married to a devout Buddhist, Kate was sitting on a cushion at her husband’s meditation center one day when Jesus appeared unexpectedly in her consciousness and called her to follow him. She was baptized a year later to the day.
Kate’s second book, "Their Faces Shone: A Foster Parent’s Lessons on Loving and Letting Go" was released in 2020 by Light Messages Publishing. In the book, Kate explores the question of where family begins and ends, and how things change when we invite strangers --with complicated stories and baggage -- into our lives.
A graduate of Wesleyan University in Connecticut and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Gillings School of Global Public Health, Kate’s professional work is focused on international public health. She is currently working on her third book, "Reclaiming Rest: The Promise of Sabbath, Solitude, and Stillness in a Restless World," which will be published by Broadleaf Books, an imprint of 1517 Media, in 2021.
You can learn more about Kate’s work and connect with her online at www.katerademacher.com
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 1, 2020
Each of us has a dream. Perhaps its a cruise around the world, or hiking the highest mountain on every continent, or writing the great American novel, or getting a Ph.D in a beloved field. For Kate Rademacher it was having a larger family than one child. In Their Faces Shone Kate writes about her second best option—becoming a foster parent. The decision to take in a foster child was a difficult one. Although Kate’s husband did not want a second child, he did reluctantly agree to be a foster parent. The give-and-take of any marital conflict made this an emotionally difficult step to take. When the young girl arrived in their home she carried with her a long and turbulent history of homelessness and brief intervals with assorted relatives. Despite that her joy in living, her exuberance, her extroversion brought delight to Kate’s family.
Every parent knows that someday she has to let her child go into the world, but with a foster child that someday arrives sooner. It’s not a gradual maturation process that the parent and child move through together until there is an adult to adult relationship. Your heart will soar when you read the delights of fostering a child and you will weep as you follow the surgical process of letting go completely.
Every parent knows that someday she has to let her child go into the world, but with a foster child that someday arrives sooner. It’s not a gradual maturation process that the parent and child move through together until there is an adult to adult relationship. Your heart will soar when you read the delights of fostering a child and you will weep as you follow the surgical process of letting go completely.
January 1, 2021
Kate’s book is an honest and beautiful telling of her story of fostering.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews