Q. Every day I hear of tragedies all over the world and even in my own city. As a Christian I feel called to respond to the needs of the poor and suffering and yet a day caring for my husband and my three small children exhausts me. I feel helpless. What does God really want from me?

The world is full of pain and suffering. Our media keeps us in touch with these tragedies. Jesus teaches us to have a compassionate heart and so you are rightly moved by all you see around you, and your heart leaps, aches and breaks in response to so much human suffering.

God has blessed you with a husband, three growing children, and all the demands of nurturing life in an active and very busy world. How are you to respond on a daily basis to the reality of our human condition both near and far? What exactly is your divine assignment?

How much does the past weigh?

This is one of the questions posed by my nominee for best movie of 2009. I am not alone in my enthusiasm for this film. Internet Movie Data Base is a Web site in which members can rank movies from the past and present on a 10-point scale. At the time of this writing, 36,326 individuals have voted for the film, giving it an average score of 8.7 – one of the highest ratings on the site.

The movie is titled simply “Up.” In my opinion, it is the best film to come out of that wonderfully creative studio, Pixar, which has a solid string of animated hits. To dismiss “Up” as a mere cartoon would be a big mistake. It’s a showcase for how animation can combine art, drama and comedy to tell a moving and complete story that should be nominated for the best picture of the year.

Pro-life bumper stickers make me uncomfortable. So do pro-life T-shirts with their large pictures of unborn babies.

They don’t make me uncomfortable because I’m pro-abortion. I agree with the church’s teachings on the sanctity of life at every stage. I do not believe in the death penalty; don’t believe in euthanasia and rarely think that war is the only answer to an international problem. Rather, my discomfort with some aspects of the pro-life movement in general, and the Catholic piece of it in particular, arises from my perspective as a foster and adoptive parent. I see too little of a connection between the pro-life movement and the foster and adoptive community.

As of December 2008, there were 2,638 children in Milwaukee County who needed placement outside of their homes because of allegations of neglect or abuse against their parents. That year, there were only 857 active, licensed foster homes able to receive those children. The rest of the children had to be placed with unlicensed relatives or in group homes. In Milwaukee, as well as in other cities its size or larger, the families who step forward to foster are too often marginal themselves. Recent tragedies highlighted in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s series on the ills of the Milwaukee foster care system illustrate just how dire the situation is.

The story haunted me for weeks and even now, some eight months later, it still sends shivers up my spine.

The tragedy of Maddie Kiefer, the Whitefish Bay High School freshman who was left to die in a driveway on a winter morning after overdosing on prescription drugs seemed such a waste of a beautiful life.

Her solitary death was such a contrast to the photo of Maddie that ran in the newspaper and on television for days to follow. Such a beautiful girl with an engaging smile, she seemed to have the world at her feet.

Her story also hit close to home. Maddie was two days older than our oldest daughter, Marisa, and from what I read, Maddie had a similar upbringing, including a Catholic school education and connection to their Catholic parish.