Hard road to incredible joy

"I believe there's a girl out there somewhere who needs a daddy like you," Kari Robertson said to her husband Bray during an evening walk around the neighborhood with their two young sons … about 16 years ago.

They had a great family unit and didn’t feel like they were lacking in any- thing, but the thought of her husband fathering a girl consumed Kari’s heart.

“I couldn’t get away from it,” she told The Stand.

For Kari, it wasn’t just an over- whelming desire to have a daughter, and after two very difficult pregnancies, it surely wasn’t about giving birth to a baby girl. It was about the Lord prompting her heart to adopt. But Bryan wasn’t on board until his work in the ministry moved the Robertson family to First Baptist Church in Wood- stock, Georgia, where Bryan became pastor of assimilation after a number of years in student ministry.

“I assumed I couldn’t love an adopted kid like I do my biological boys,” Bryan said. “But I was completely wrong.”

Change of heart

During Bryan’s first year on staff at First Baptist Woodstock, the church began a ministry called WeFoster (fbcw. org/wefoster).

“It was the church taking the initiative, as the church is supposed to do, to care for orphans and widows,” Kari said.

The church dove all in, and before long, both Bryan and Kari did too. The Lord turned both of their hearts toward foster care without removing the desire to adopt.

However, they were met with more discouragement than encouragement.

“I heard from so many people: ‘I’m scared your hearts are going to be bro- ken because the goal of the [foster care] system is reunification with the parents,'" Kari said. "[But] the Lord, as gracious as He is, also directed me to His Word where He says He's near to the brokenhearted, and He heals the brokenhearted. And that somehow gave me peace."

Before they knew it, they had fostered five different children – each of whom was reunified with their parents.

Kari is quick to admit that their hearts were tragically broken in the process, but God was faithful to heal their hearts every single time, and they went right back to being foster parents.

"When the Lord has a plan, sometimes it's extremely hard," Kari said. "But you just can't refuse that desire that He has placed on your heart.”

Desire of her heart

It was through the Robertsons’ obedience to foster care that God gave Kari the desire of her heart when 1-year-old Leti was placed in their home. It was 13 months before Leti officially became their daughter through adoption. They even fostered another child after Leti’s placement but then took a break to focus on Leti and make sure she was well attached and established as part of their family.

Although the Lord had shown Himself faithful by bringing a daughter to the Robertson family, He had a double blessing in store for them.

The family relocated from Georgia to Tennessee, where Bryan moved into family ministry. An empty bed in their new house spurred Kari’s heart, so they opened their home to foster care again … and again, even after a second move. “We kept walking by an empty room in our home, month after month,” she said. “And we were like, this is crazy! We have an empty room, and there are children out there who need somewhere to be safe.”

     Nine-month-old Lena was one of them. She came to the Robertsons extremely mal- nourished and very sick. Their first two years with Lena involved multiple trips to the ER and many nights when she vomited repeatedly all night long. Her birth parents were in and out of the picture.

      "I had no idea what the Lord's plans were for us, other than we were just trying to get her better while hoping that her parents were getting better," Kari said. 

      But sometime after the first year, something flipped in Kari's heart.

      "It was almost like I was fighting for their [biological] family for the first year and then began fighting for my new family," Kari explained, "because I believed that Lena was supposed to be with us."

After two long, hard, very emotional years, Lena became a Robertson, and Bryan and Kari became parents of not just one daughter but two!

A family at heart

"It hasn't been an easy path, but it's been one that I would never undo," Kari said. "I would never trade any of those children for any of the heartache.

 "They have brought us so much joy and so much opportunity to share the gospel with so many people. …And I love them exactly the way I love my boys that I birthed. There is no difference in my heart."

Bryan concurred: "In my heart, mind, and soul, there is no difference in the love that I have for all four of my kids now. … It's just a perfect picture of the gospel in the fact that Jesus adopts us … and we're treated like sons and daughters because we are His sons and daughters,