Tara and Rob Edwards have welcomed nineteen foster children into their home. Tara, a public school teacher, admits she is drawn to hurting children, seeing the good in every one, looking past the often “prickly” outside.
“Tara loves kids in such an amazing way,” Rob says. “It’s a God thing. She has an ease about her that draws every child to her. She loves them in the Lord.”
Rob’s son Matthew was two when his first marriage ended in divorce and three when Rob and Tara married in 2013. His daughter Macie was three years older. Tara became a first-time parent of two children she loved, but the couple wanted to grow their family. It was devastating when they learned there would be no more children.
“I struggled to understand,” Tara confesses. “Why would God give me such a passion for children and I couldn’t have children of my own?”
In 2016, Tara and Rob turned their hearts toward fostering to adopt. They remember talking about it one day, and the next Sunday Chris Allabaugh, Associate Vice President, Child and Family Services for Baptist Children’s Homes (BCH), spoke in their church about becoming a BCH foster family. After attending a question and answer session following that morning’s presentation, they were the only couple who returned the following week with paperwork completed, ready to start training.
“We were building the foster care program in the east from the ground up,” Allabaugh says. “Rob and Tara were the perfect couple to be our first foster family. They didn’t come at it half-hearted. They were in from the beginning.”
After training, their license was written, submitted, and approved. The Edwards were ready for the call that their first foster child was on the way. What they believed would be days, maybe a few weeks, turned into months and the months began to add up.
“We were asked if we wanted to continue,” Tara says. “I remember being discouraged, but Rob and I never gave up. We resolved to wait on God. He would bring the children.”
A week later, 12 months after being licensed, two sisters walked through the front door of their home. The couple relied on their training and the ready support available from BCH staff members. They quickly learned every day would be different and to roll with what happens. Tara recalls: “There were awesome days and other days you think, ‘What in the world are we doing?’”
The Edwards learned that with every child, their family had to become the family the child needs. Each child is different and the couple had to work through every challenge, choosing to love each child unconditionally.
“When we were being trained by Chris,” Rob says, “I remember him telling us that on average a foster child has seven placements. Seven! What an impact that must have on a child! Tara and I determined then that if a child came into our home, it stopped here for that child.”
The couple committed to work with the foster child’s family, too. They are non-threatening, befriending, and encouraging to them.
“We never try to replace parents,” Rob says. “We encourage, helping any way we can as they work to be reunited with their child.”
Seeing healing and watching a child return to their family is rewarding, but saying goodbye can be painful. It is hard to let go.
“God helps us through it,” Rob asserts. “We know it’s not about us. We do what we know to do, turn to Jesus, and lay down our hurt. We let go and trust.”
After every child leaves, the Edwards go for ice cream. It’s good balm as they remember the good things, celebrating the child who shared their lives.
Tara and Rob’s goal from the beginning was adoption, but it was just a goal, not the goal. The number of children added up quicker than the couple ever planned. Their main goal was to always love the child.
In summer 2023, a call came about two brothers, nine-month-old CJ and four-year-old Timothy. They had been in foster care and parental rights were about to be surrendered. The boys needed a family—an adoptive family.
The boys visited on Labor Day. CJ wore a cranial helmet and needed Tara’s attention. Timothy was high energy, excited and happy. Tara, Rob, Matthew, and Macie fell in love with the boys.
It stops at the Edwards’ home. The boys would go nowhere else. A short time later, the boys moved in. The adoption process began, but took longer than anticipated. CJ did not have a birth certificate. He was not born in a hospital and his birth was never recorded.
“It is God’s providence,” Rob says. “We married and were a family of four. We couldn’t have children and ended up fostering. When the time was right, we were what God needed us to be so that when these boys needed us, we were there.”
When word came that the adoption was final on January 8, 2025, Timothy smiled. He was now an Edwards. It was the last stop for the brothers, a permanent, stable home. He and CJ now have the family they needed.
Written by Jim Edminson, Editor of Charity & Children