Intersection Column | From Foster Care to Fiction
- mtlmagazine
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
by Kate Angelo
If you had told me years ago that the pain and trauma of my childhood would one day inspire a bestselling suspense novel, I probably would’ve laughed. Or cried. Maybe both. But that’s the beauty of God’s redemptive hand. He never wastes our scars.
Girl Lost was born from a deeply personal place. While it’s filled with action, mystery, and a little romance, the real heart of the story lies in Luna’s emotional journey. It’s one I know intimately. Like Luna, I grew up in the shadow of addiction. My mother’s battle with substance abuse shaped much of my early life. I carried responsibilities no child should carry, always comparing myself to others who seemed to have “normal” families, always wondering if I’d ever be enough.
Eventually, I ended up in foster care. It was during those years that I began to sense God’s quiet pursuit of me. Not a lightning-bolt conversion or a neatly tied-up spiritual bow, but a slow, relentless, and grace-filled drawing. I wrestled with feelings of unworthiness. Unworthy of love, of stability, of anything good. And while professing Jesus as Lord gave me hope, it didn’t erase the pain. Healing didn’t happen overnight. It still hasn’t. Some days, I have to take every thought captive just to believe the truth about who I am in Christ. But that’s the power of relationship; He walks with me in it.
That journey is what I poured into Girl Lost. Luna struggles with those same questions of worth, identity, and trust. She’s fiercely capable, smart, and independent on the outside. But inside, she wrestles with the lie that she has to be enough, do enough, or fix everything herself. Sound familiar? It does to me.
In Girl Lost, I also explored how God can use brokenness to connect people. Luna and Corbin don’t just fall in love; they help each other face the wounds of their past. They’re stronger together, not because either of them is perfect, but because they learn to see each other through God’s eyes. Isn’t that what healing often looks like? Not sweeping transformation, but daily, grace-soaked steps forward, and sometimes with someone else walking beside us.
While the novel does touch on some fascinating medical advancements and the ethics behind them (which I promise won’t spoil anything), at its core, Girl Lost is about finding your way back. Not just to love, but to the truth that you are already deeply loved and pursued by the God who made you. A God who sees beyond your scars. A God who isn’t surprised by your brokenness.
I wrote this book for the person who still hears the voice of unworthiness in their mind. For the one who feels like their past disqualifies them. For the one who’s still trying to believe they’re redeemable. If that’s you or someone you love, this story is a small offering of hope. Not the kind that glosses over pain, but the kind that sits with you in it and gently whispers, “You’re not lost. I see you. And I’m not letting go.”
This passion for healing and restoration is also why my husband and I pour our hearts into the nonprofit we co-founded. We help individuals and couples build strong, healthy relationships because we know firsthand how much it matters. We want families to thrive, not just survive, and we believe that when marriages are whole, children grow up with the kind of love, stability, and example many of us didn’t have. It’s hard work, and often unpaid, but it’s worth every moment. We believe no one is too lost to be found, and no story is too broken for redemption.
If you’d like to connect more, you can find me at KateAngelo.com or @kateangeloauthor on Facebook and Instagram. I’d love to walk alongside you through stories of redemption and faith, whether in fiction or in real life.
About the Author
Kate Angelo is the Publishers Weekly bestselling author of Hunting the Witness and Driving Force, and Selah Award winner of Deadly Holiday Hijack. Kate works alongside her husband, championing stronger marriages and families. Her journey from foster care to bestselling author fuels her fast-paced romantic suspense, where flawed characters discover hope and healing through life’s fiercest trials and relationships. When she’s not putting fictional people through the wringer, she’s out creating real-life happily-ever-afters at conferences and events nationwide. Learn more about Kate at kateangelo.com.
About the Book
Luna Rosati found acceptance with her childhood foster family, but when she became pregnant at sixteen, she gave the baby up for adoption and left without a word. Now a CIA counterintelligence officer, Luna wants to find the only blood family she has—the teenage daughter she's never met. When Special Agent Corbin King is tasked to help Luna, the object of his failed teenage romance, the two must put their pasts aside and work together to expose a secret that someone's willing to kill for.