Chris Tomlin is a ‘Funcle,’ a Foster Uncle

Nashville Tennessean USA TODAY NETWORK - TENNESSEE

Christian music star Chris Tomlin got involved in promoting foster care at his concerts because it’s personal.

Turns out Tomlin is a “funcle,” a foster uncle.

Two of Tomlin’s brothers and their wives have adopted children after serving as foster parents for those kids, Tomlin said.

“It’s a beautiful thing to watch,” he said.

“And it’s a beautiful thing to share with my own children, two girls, 7 and 4, helping them see why they have new cousins and what that means.”

His brothers, Ryan, 43, and Cory, 41, who each have biological children, are both married to nurses.

Both couples decided to accept children with special medical needs into foster care, children who at first required 24-hour care.

“They really got thrown into the fire,” Tomlin said. “It’s a very rewarding and very hard and very confusing time. And yet they feel so strongly this is the right thing.”

Within a year or so, the Tomlins adopted those children, which doubled the amount of kids running around last Christmas at the family gathering in Texas.

The gathering moved Tomlin deeply.

“I would just stop and think, ‘Everyone’s playing outside in the yard, throwing a football around. Wow, the second chance they have in life, from being abandoned to taken in and loved for the rest of their lives,” he said.

“Your heart fills up. It’s a reminder of what’s most important.”

Might Tomlin and his wife, Lauren, become foster parents?

“With me being gone most of the time, it’s not fair to my wife to add someone else to the house and me not being there,” he said.

“But we have kicked that around; we think it could be something in our future.”

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