We Are Expecting…

We are excited to announce that we are expecting a foster baby this summer!

We are so thrilled to be announcing this news. If you know me at all, you know that I can’t keep a secret to save my life. So, the fact that I made it through 2 months of classes, getting a nursery ready, and reading baby books off social media for the past few months is a huge win for me!

We have completed all of the required state classes, and the initial inspection. We are preparing this week for our home study inspection with our licensing agent which entails: a 5 hour long interview, thorough walkthrough, moldings to ceiling home inspection, and more paperwork to complete our home study. Once this inspection is finished, we will be waiting on the state for a placement. Receiving a placement = a sweet babe in our arms.

This journey has been a long one for us. Over the past 3 years we have lost 2 little babies due to miscarriages, and after my accident last summer we really felt like God was leading us towards adoption. After A LOT of research we decided on fostering to adopt.

When JJ and I first met we had that initial conversation about what kind of family we would both like to have someday. I can recall us talking about both wishing that we had more siblings growing up and because of that we both desired having a bigger family than the ones we grew up in. We both discussed having a desire to adopt someday. I guarantee, however, that the topic of foster care never came up until about two years ago.

About two years ago I came home in tears, completely ruined, heartbroken, devastated, and angry. As a special education teacher I have a duty to report to DPS if a student of mine either confides in me, if I notice something very suspicious, or if someone comes to me and reveals that something is wrong. This particular day a our team of staff at the school made the call to DPS and it was one of the hardest days of my entire life. I came home and sobbed while JJ held me, trying to piece together what had happened. We had an idea to somehow become foster parents so that we could help out this particular student until things got better for those involved. The next day I contacted the caseworker and inquired about the process and if it was possible for us to help this family out.

We were not able to help out this particular family, but that experience was the spark that ignited the flame in our hearts to pursue becoming foster parents.

Now, it is now the middle of July and we have:

sat for MONTHS in classes to learn about foster care,

spent WEEKS on paperwork to become licensed foster parents,

perused for DAYS  on amazon, target, and craigslist for baby items,

assembled for HOURS the crib, and dresser for the nursery and,

now we are counting the MINUTES until a sweet little one is placed with us.

Here is what we know:

We know that there are no guarantees. We know that we will get attached and would be heartbroken to have a baby leave. But our plan is to love them like they are leaving everyday, like we could lose them at any moment. We believe that we need to give them all the care and love in the world because tomorrow they could be gone. We know this journey could be a rocky one – but we intend to enjoy all of the positive parts that we can.
We know there might be a lot of frustration and heartache- but we also know that God has called us to help, nurture, and love these sweet babies on the journey to OUR baby- even if they don’t stay. God has called us to love the orphan. We believe that we have been adopted into God’s family (Ephesians 1:4-5), and our hope and prayer is that we can offer that same kind of acceptance and love to the little lives that come into our home.