When Chad and Melissa Buck mark milestones in their family, the couple celebrates progress some parents barely notice. Melissa teared up last year when she realized her daughter had started smiling in pictures: “That’s huge for her.”

It’s huge because the Bucks’ children began their lives in a very different home filled with abuse and neglect. The Michigan couple fostered and then adopted three siblings, ages 4 years to 18 months. They later fostered and adopted two more children, including a biological sibling of the first three.

Melissa said they learned the oldest boy had taken care of his younger brother and sister for long periods of time and endured physical abuse if he couldn’t keep the baby quiet: “It took a long time for my son to learn to be a child.”

Some 13,000 children are currently in Michigan’s foster care system. Nearly 300 are eligible for adoption. Others hope to be reunited with a family member, but they need placement in foster care until their cases are resolved.

Finding homes isn’t always easy, and state and local governments often contract with private agencies, including Christian groups, to recruit foster care families. More than 400,000 children are in the foster care system in the United States.

The Bucks met their children through St. Vincent Catholic Charities, an agency that has served Michigan for 70 years. Bethany Christian Services, an evangelical organization with offices in 35 states, facilitates foster care for more than 1,000 children in Michigan.

But earlier this year, the Christian groups faced a government ultimatum: accept applications from same-sex couples for foster care and foster care adoption or lose the legal right to conduct foster care in Michigan. The Catholic group refused. Bethany complied.

At the time, Bethany President Chris Palusky said his group was disappointed with the Michigan outcome but wanted to continue providing foster services to vulnerable children in the state. (Both groups had been referring same-sex couples to other agencies in the area.)

St. Vincent fought the Michigan mandate, citing the Catholic group’s religious beliefs. The Bucks joined the lawsuit, saying the government shouldn’t sever the agency from foster care because of its religious principles.

On Sept. 26, a Michigan court ruled in the agency’s favor: A preliminary injunction will allow St. Vincent to continue foster care while the case winds through the courts.

A similar case is underway in Philadelphia, where city officials delivered a similar mandate to Christian groups last year: agree to approve same-sex foster parents or lose contracts to facilitate foster care. A Catholic agency refused. Bethany complied.

Bethany’s decision to give in to government demands drew national attention: The Christian group is one of the largest adoption agencies in the country and has been well known among evangelicals for decades, particularly for its work in private adoptions. That work has grown to include foster care in a handful of states and services for refugees and migrants in others.

(Foster and refugee services make up a large proportion of Bethany’s efforts: The agency’s 2018 financial report showed it raised $17 million in private donations and received more than $76 million in reimbursements for children’s services. A chunk of those funds goes directly to foster families caring for children.)

As adoption rates drop, largely due to a steep decline in international adoptions, some Christian agencies see the burgeoning foster care population as an important opportunity for Christians who want to help vulnerable children.

But government contracts bring government scrutiny, and some faith-based agencies increasingly face a stark choice: hold true to all their beliefs or compromise on some.

The dilemmas are difficult when vulnerable children are involved, but the decisions also have broader implications. Indeed, Joe Carter of the Gospel Coalition noted an important lesson from the recent ruling in Michigan: “We will lose our religious freedoms if we refuse to fight.”