I realize I haven't posted much lately (other than Thoughtful Thursday posts) and the reason is that we have been super busy and have gone through so much in the past two and a half months it is almost hard to believe all that has happened. As most of my blog readers (all six of you) know, we have been on a roller coaster ride known as foster/adoption. I have been struggling with how much to share about this journey on my blog which is why I haven't written anything up to this point- not because I don't want to share it with my readers, but because we have to be very careful with confidentiality (not just for the sake of the children we care for and their families, but for our protection as well). It has been such a huge part of our lives these past two months though that this journey is what I want to share about most.
Let me start at the beginning, so that you have an idea of what I'm talking about, how this journey stated, and where it has led. We learned last spring (that's spring 2011) that the foster care coordinator for our county had visited local church offices in the area to get the word out that there was/is a need for foster and adoptive parents. We felt a little tug at our hearts when hearing this and quickly learned that a few families in our church had decided to go through the 36 hours of training (this training is required before you can even submit an application and begin the home study process). Having no knowledge or experience with the foster care system, but with God whispering in our ear, we decided to take the training and find out what it was all about. We called and registered for the upcoming training that was scheduled for later that summer and fall.
We took the training in August and November of last year, and let me tell you that nothing in my 30+ years of life could have prepared me for it. I could write an entire post on the training and statistics alone, but suffice it to say that it was heartbreaking, eye opening, encouraging, shocking, and about 25 other adjectives I'm not going to type out here. There were many, many times along the way when I said: "I don't want to do this," "We are crazy," "I can't do this," but we continued to pray about it and ultimatley decided that God had placed us on this path for a reason, so a week after completing the training in November we mailed in our application. We progressed through the application and home study process and on February 16, 2012 we were officially licensed foster/adoptive parents. Exactly one week later we received our first call.
That first call did not end in a placement, but it sure threw me for a loop. I was totally unprepared when the foster coordinator called and told me they had a child in custody that needed to be placed in a foster home that day (placements are almost always same day). I remember thinking this couldn't be happening, and did I really sign up for this, and how did she get our number, and how in the world are we going to do this. I told her I needed to call Jason and that I would call her back. I called him at work and filled him in, and then I told him that I couldn't make the decision and that he was going to have to do it (no pressure or anything). And he made the decision: he said, "Well, this is what we signed up for." So, I called the coordinator back and said we were available to take the child if needed, but by that time she had heard back from another family and she felt they were a better match so we left it up to her and she placed the child with them. This was a total relief for me (did I mention that I was TOTALLY UNPREPARED for the call and all that it entailed) because during those 20 minutes my heart was racing a mile a minute and I was near panic mode.
This all brings us to 11:40am on Monday, March 26 when the phone rang with our second foster placement call. I was much more prepared this time and when the coordintor gave me the information I immediately said yes...our first foster child arrived at 6:30 that night and we officially earned the title of foster parents (nothing like baptism by fire, right?).
To be continued.....
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