The Night the Angels Came by Cathy Glass

I love to read foster care and adoption books, and was thrilled to find this author who has written several about the children she has cared for.  Some of her books can be quite graphic in the abuse the children she has cared for have suffered, but this one was different.

Cathy gets a call from her worker telling her about a young boy who will need a place to stay soon.  Instead of being an abused or neglected child, however, this ten year old boy has different circumstances.  His mother died when he was younger, and now his father is dying of cancer, and there are no family members to care for him.  They need someone to care for the child as the father goes in and out of the hospital, and the child will need a permanent place when the father dies.  Can Cathy do it?

At first, she isn't sure, because she has two young children, and has just gone through a divorce.  She is reluctant to have another upheaval of loss in her children's lives.  When she presents it to the children, however, she is surprised and proud to find that the kids want to do it.  They believe their own recent loss of a father, even though it was a different circumstance, will enable them to help Michael, the little boy.

Cathy agrees to meet the father, and if they both feel good about it, to begin to know the child.

The two families bond right away.  Michael and his father, Patrick, are devoted to God, and pray often.  Michael has wonderful manners and is a very pleasant child to care for .  Cathy grows to love not only Michael, but also his father, and they are soon seeing each other socially.  But problems soon arise

This is a sweet book and I enjoyed it very much.  It was a different take on foster care that I really enjoyed reading about.  I highly recommend this book!