Welcome 2012! We've been waiting for you.

My family has been in the process of becoming a foster family since April of 2011.  We finally finished our last home study last weekend and now all we're waiting on is our paperwork to be signed for the official license to be drawn up.  I can hardly believe that our journey is really getting ready to begin.  It feels as though we've been talking about it, preparing for it, reading about it and going to classes for it forever.  Now, all of sudden, it's becoming reality!  We are so excited to expand our family in this way and it could happen at anytime now!

Believe it or not, becoming a foster parent was my husbands idea.  He told me that a friend of his in High School was a foster kid and his foster parents were really nice.  That stuck with him all of these years.   When my husband first asked me about becoming foster parents, I was NOT interested.  He explained that he really wanted to make a difference in the lives of kids in our community.  He went on to tell me about his friend in school and how his friend's parents had made a difference in that young man's life.  My husband is a man of very few words...so that fact that he came out with all of these thoughts and feelings was a kin to the parting of the Red Sea--MIRACULOUS!  LOL! 

I really had to pray hard about this foster care thing, because up to this point I was NOT interested!  I had always wanted to adopt.  Growing up, my Mom's best friend adopted a beautiful Korean baby girl.  I remember my Mom's friend having a room ready for a new baby way before her adopted daughter ever arrived in the U.S.   As a child, I thought it was so neat that if you wanted a child badly enough that you could bring one home, from another country, that may need good parents and love them like your own.  That has stuck with me for a long time.
  
Last year I met an incredible couple who had adopted this adorable blond haired, blue eyed boy.  He is so darn cute! After getting to know them more I found out that he was originally a foster child that they adopted through the foster care system.  (Can any of you hear the bells and whistles going off in my head??)  My friend told me all about their family's journey into foster care and how much it had blessed their family.  She was able to get me in touch with the right people and a year later here we are! 

She is still and will continue to be one of the greatest resources I will have.  When the Department of Social Services calls us in the middle of the night to place a child with us, she will be the 1st person we call or text.  If we're not sure how to handle a particular situation, you know who we'll be calling. =)  My husband and I are so thankful for them and their family for their support! 

Maybe next time I write to you I'll have a little person playing at my feet or a baby sleeping in the next room.  You never know.  What I DO know, is that God has great plans for my family in 2012!  Hopefully we'll be growing our family by a person or two---or three for that matter. 

My prayer is:  God, use our family to strengthen and uphold other families who are hurting.  Please give us the compassion and patience it takes to "bring up a child in the way he should go".  May we lean on you,Lord, each day for our every need and not forget that EVERYONE is valuable to You---even if our society may not think so.  Amen

We're looking forward to 2012.  Are you?  I'd love to hear what you think might happen for you this year.  God bless each of you.