This from C.S. Lewis’ Weight of Glory really affected me when it comes to our purposes in foster care and potentially adoption.
He’s talking about war but I think it applies.
“I think the best results are obtained by people who work quietly away at limited objectives, such as the abolition of the slave trade, or prison reform, or factory acts, or tuberculosis, not by those who think they can achieve universal justice, or health, or peace.
“I think the art of life consists in tackling each immediate evil as well as we can.
“…just as the dentist who can stop one toothache has deserved better of humanity than all the men who think they have some scheme for producing a perfectly healthy race.”