If you follow all the noise and fury in our world lately, you’ll see America, too, is kept constantly torn apart. Nobody wants to listen anymore, especially if you disagree with something another has said. Why should that be? Shouldn’t we start with, “What is the problem,” before we launch into solutions that might not even apply? We may find we can reach genuine, agreed upon solutions.

We see a fearful world torn by disaster. Children are cut off from their parents in wars or dislocations across the world. Russians kidnap Ukrainian children and send them away into the dark reaches of Russia itself. Flood disasters as in Libya shock us, all the more so when we realize that thousands of children are left without parents in a heartless, cold world. Wildfires find children left parentless and alone in the aftermath of huge burns in places like Maui. Children are born without parents around to love them, to care for them. What to do? Perhaps we can begin by not judging, and first finding out what seems to work to help these little lost ones. If a child comes into this world, without anyone to care for the little one, then society needs to be there to fill the gap — at least here, at least where we live. We read about the Athens Family Resource Center offering clothes to those children and babies without. We discover Women Empowering Women helping with food as well. In fact, we can consider being a foster parent if we find children who need families and loving parents. It would seem recent judicial decisions will bring far more children up for adoption. Where are those who will care for them?

An extraordinary book came across this owl’s nest recently. Sometimes a book touches you so deeply you feel it must be made known. We live in an often-selfish world. Yet, then again, we often discover those who remind us that kindness is a magnificent virtue, still persistently practiced and shared with the least among us. Robin LaVonne Hunt is such a person. Her kindness, insight and wit show through as she brings us her honest appraisal of what it means to be a foster parent. With open eyes to all its problematic features, she offers a balm in troubled times. She writes as a foster mom in her astounding, refreshing and enlightening “Breathing Through Foster Care.” Indeed, hers is “A Survival Guide Based on the Reflection of a Foster Mom.”

Hunt, a full-time teacher of grammar school children, learned how to truly listen to children. Thus she learned to lovingly and patiently foster children at home. Her explanation of all the aspects of foster care is clear and factually demonstrated. We learn what to expect at each step of the way. With exceptional stories she acquaints the reader with what it means to enter the foster child programs. She explains how the myriad dilemmas are overcome. Hunt shows how valuable coordination, collegiality and mutual assistance from many sources can help a foster parent become more than successful. No foster parent is left to fend for themselves without help. We are introduced to every “team” player along the way. We discover how the legal, ethical, educational, financial and moral systems interact. Of great significance, she demonstrates how fostering is often problematic, indeed downright difficult. Yet she offers reasonable, functional solutions to these dilemmas. We are led to discern that personality strengths of listening, observing and active caring, not only carry the parents through, but also strengthen the children who learn from these wise interactions with their parents. If you want to leave a concrete, good mark upon the world, be a foster parent. Robin Hunt is your caring, wise and helpful guide through this often-unknown forest. Perhaps we have a model for abandoned, forsaken or otherwise lonely children. We certainly have a model of what might work.

Yes, ours is a strange world. We have many who advocate for the birth of children, but few who acknowledge someone must care for the littlest among us once born. Every child needs love. Every child needs someone to take care of them. If the birth mother and father don’t, then who will? Will you?