Watch out...this ones a long one!

Jeff and I have some, sort of, big news. No, unfortunately we’re not pregnant but we may become parents in the spring! As many of you can image, the fertility treatments are taking a toll on my life and heart. Every month with discouraging news really ways on you and I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t want to do this anymore. Yes, I would love to have a biological child, and just because it doesn’t happen now, doesn’t mean it won’t happen in the future. So, what am I getting at? Jeff and I have decided to become foster/adoptive parents. We are going to attend orientation on August 31st and then decide for sure if this is the path we want to take. There are many reasons why we decided to do this. I always felt like I was put on earth to be a mom but also to care for children. If you know me personally, you know I love children with all my heart. I prayed a lot this summer about the path God wanted us to take and somehow, somewhere I stumbled upon foster care and adoptive parenting. (I’ll explain what this all means later). Jeff’s heart wasn’t in it at first and I think he still hasn’t completely fallen for the idea. We still plan on going through with the IUI in August, and if we get pregnant with that we’ll be super excited! But if not, we’ll continue with foster care. I looked into adoption but for many reasons my heart didn’t feel like that was right. The cost and wait is long, plus there are so many children here that need good, loving, stable homes. Everyday I do more research on this and find this is the path God wants us to take. Jeff’s heart has slowly been softened to this idea and he is open to taking this journey.

Now, what does foster/adoptive parenting mean? There are many ways to be foster parents but we have chosen a special route with the intention of adoption. We are going to orientation in August and should be starting our 10 weeks of PS-MAPP training in October. From what I’ve learned during the 10 weeks of training we’ll have 2-3 home studies, collect reference letters from family and friends, and learn about how to be a great foster parent as well as the type of kids that are brought into foster care. Jeff and I have decided to foster 0-3years of age children. I am going to stress the fact that we would like a newborn or baby because we want to adopt. We are also going to talk to our social worker and let her know we’d really like ‘low replacement’ children. This means that a child is taken out of their home and placed in foster care. During this time the parents rights can be terminated by court and they contact other families members to see if they would like to adopt the child. If the parental rights are terminated and family member don’t want to adopt the child we start the process of adoption. We have been ‘warned’ that we may be foster parents to a few children before we have the option to adopt but I think the most important part to remember in all this is that we are there for the child, to give them a loving, stable home during this hard time. I know this will be hard for us but I also know God wouldn’t have put this in our hearts if it wasn’t the right plan for us.

Now, I’m very excited and a little stressed. Our age range is pretty large which means I need to be prepared for a newborn AND toddler. (Oh, and did I mention we could get siblings to?!) We already have a nursery set up and will be making the guest bedroom more ‘kid friendly’ just in case. But how do I plan for all this? I need a toddler car seat and an infant car seat, do I get a single stroller or double or wait to see what happens? What if we foster one child then a few months later another one-so we have two? How do I decide on clothes? Get a few outfits in each age range? Ah!!! SO much to do. I may be getting ahead of myself as we still have an IUI to do and training to attend, but I’m trying to my hardest to prepare our home and us mentally.

I know many of you may be judging our decision, but please support us through our journey. It will be hard, it could be emotionally painful, but I think through the support of God and our family, we can do this. If this is how He wants our family to grow, this is how we will do it!

PS- I am making my blog private from now on. This isn't because I don't want you to read it (I hope you all still follow us!) but we need more privacy. Plus, with foster/adoptive care the childs privacy needs to be respected so we are making sure that I know (or kind of know) all of our followers!