Exciting Times

Things have been pretty busy around here the last week and a half and I am SO excited to share why and where we are today. As of yesterday Nat and I got word that we are officially approved as foster parents!!! Shocking right? We have been taking classes every Thursday night for the last ELEVEN weeks and 1 week ago we had our final visit and found out yesterday that we've been approved! It has been a LONG and EXHAUSTING journey for our entire family (And my sweet friend Adrienne who has taken the boys almost every single week while we attended class. :-) Talk about a blessing), but one that we cannot be more excited about.

When Nat and I first got married I had always thrown out the idea of wanting to adopt at some point and he thought it sounded like a good idea. Then we had two crazy boys, moved to a new state, and renovated a house and  it kind of seemed like our hands were plenty full for a while. That's were God laughed at me. Through my mom's group at church he put me in contact with three wonderful women who all had a hand in the foster care system in some way or another. For the first time in my life I really saw it as GOD telling me this is what we should do. I was really nervous though that just because I thought this was what God wanted I needed Nat to be on board as well. He was slightly hesitant about it at first simply because he wasn't sure how it would affect the boys, but said he would go to the first informational meeting and go from there. 11 weeks later and I can tell you I am more impressed and in love with my husband that I ever thought I would be. He has been by my side through it all as we went through it together. I never felt like this was "my cause" or that he was doing it just to please me. He has embraced it and shown me a whole new side of him that I just adore. I am so excited for some child to get to see and experience the dad and role model that he is.

So after 11 weeks of answering the most personal questions, letting complete strangers have total access to every aspect of our lives that you could think of, doing more homework than I have done in a LONG time, and putting locks on anything that we could possibly see as even a slight concern we are officially certified. Right now we are going to start out with respite care which means we will be on call to help other families who need a someone to look after their foster children for a night or even for a couple weeks if they are going to be gone. We figure this will give us a chance to meet some other foster families and really have a support system for when we get totally into it. Our biggest concern is how to explain to our boys what we are doing. Not knowing how long a child will stay with you is hard enough for Nat and I to accept, but if we have a child with us for a year and then they go back to their parents, which is always the ultimate goal, how do we explain that loss to Myles and Ty. That is the reality of foster care. So that's why we are going to try to get a little network of people in place first and get some of that knowledge before we do anything too quickly and then regret our pace.
So that's what we have been up to the last 11 weeks. We feel like the last couple nights we've been able to breathe again and just relax a bit for the first time in a long time. We want to thank ALL of our friends who have supported us and given us encouragement through this journey. We are very excited for all that is to come and know that it will not be an easy road all the time, but we also KNOW that God will never give us something that we can't do as long as we depend and trust in Him.