STRANGER CARE

A writer and her husband take in a newborn as a foster child in rural Idaho.

Sentilles, a graduate of Harvard Divinity School and author of Breaking Up With God, among other books, lovingly cared for baby Coco for nine months while her troubled birth mother, Evelyn, worked on her personal issues. It's clear that the author, who had reluctantly agreed with her husband not to have biological children, hoped the arrangement with Coco would lead to adoption. After becoming qualified to foster, the couple turned down many children. “We said no a lot,” writes Sentilles. “To sibling set after sibling set. To older child after older child. To child in need after child in need after child in need.” The author also discusses Idaho’s status as a “reunification state,” where “reunifying foster children with their biological parents is considered a victory.” This leaves readers in the uncomfortable position of feeling that Sentilles, so emotionally and spiritually invested, has set herself up for an inevitable devastation. The social workers she encountered come across as chilly and defensive in the text, though it’s obvious they were also harried and overworked. The author portrays Coco in a consistently glowing light; she was a charming “delight” seemingly everywhere she went. Though interspersed passages about how whales and trees care for each other and parables from the Bible offer welcome relief from the pain of the central story, they don’t provide much added value. Throughout, Sentilles scrupulously examines her own thoughts and feelings—including her guilt that she would be happy to see Evelyn fail or "flip her truck" if it meant she could keep Coco—but it’s evident that she is not past that chapter of her life. In the epilogue, the author chronicles the continuing battle among her and Coco’s unfit biological parents, social workers, and lawyers.

A tragic, occasionally uplifting story that reveals more about the author's psychological state than the foster care system.