Ah, February. Like there isn’t enough pressure to create warmth and delight in an otherwise cold and gray month, we are also pressured into manufacturing love around Valentine’s Day. For those of us in the adoption, foster, and kinship community, love isn’t just something stamped on a greeting card, gifted in a heart-shaped box, or plopped into a vase. 

Our community is filled with educators, parents, and cheerleaders. We see past Hallmark’s idea of love. Love in the iCARE community looks less like exchanging Sponge Bob Square Pants Valentines and more like a foster parent rocking a baby at 2 a.m. It’s adoptive parents nimbly navigating outbursts. It’s caregivers Googling slang just to keep up with teens. It is educators bravely choosing to see the whole child. It’s supporters and donors bolstering our work. 

Imperfect, lifelong, soul-nourishing love like a bag of candy hearts: sweet but can sometimes leave a chalky taste in your mouth. If you bite down too hard, you risk breaking a tooth. And often, the words we intend to say come out a bit wonky. But if you savor them slowly, their sweetness lingers, and their imperfections become part of the charm.