The Calling

While it's been said we don't owe anybody an explanation for the decisions we make, I don't find that attitude very educational or helpful, so I'd like to share some thoughts on our personal foster care journey.

Choosing to foster does not mean we have "given up on adoption." I've been told several times, "No, Don't give up!" and I have to remind myself that they don't know or understand my heart, family, and position on adoption and foster care.

We began the domestic infant adoption process nearly three years ago, when Caleb was only two. We raised the money we needed for our home study. Each year, further funds are due. And more cost comes with placement. Next year, we would have to do our entire home study (and pay the dues) again. Seeing as Caleb is older, we are in a better place in our marriage, spirit, family, & maturity than we were when we began the process, we feel confident in our decision to foster rather than adopt. The longer the adoption process went, the more we have felt called to do this, and I'm proud of making this step.

I want to be vulnerable for a moment (because you never know who's in the same place) and add that when we began the adoption process, I couldn't handle fostering. I was still grieving the losses I experienced and felt an immense need for a baby in our home that would be in our family forever. I'm thankful for the healing in my heart and marriage that has happened over the past few years. Adopting an infant became about filling a hole. I needed to bring my baby home. God has worked and molded my heart to what His true calling for our family is, to take care of His children who need to be loved.

There is a huge need for foster parents, and we are capable of parenting and loving other children. We've been asked time and time again what brought us to this decision, and it never really felt like a decision at all. It felt like the obvious path God had led us to. Through the adoption process, we both felt this tug of kids who were older, more traumatized, needed more attention, needed more everything... and we were a family that could provide that.

If you know you are capable of changing a child's world, providing huge needs for a tiny person, why wouldn't you? 

It wasn't a big decision. It was a step towards a calling.

We are excited about this adventure. We know it's going to be a journey filled with every emotion. Above all else we know we are fulfilling what we have been called as a family to do. We appreciate your love and support even when at times it seems hard to understand!