It has been a while since I updated about our adoption journey! This past fall we finished our information gathering regarding domestic and international adoptions, and then the holidays washed over our house, sidetracking us from further discussions about adoption for a few months. Another thing that happened this fall was, by God's grace (truly), we became 100% debt free and started a novel thing called a savings account...ever heard of one (the last time I had one was when I was about ten years old)? As the new year rolled in we felt led, for a few reasons, to re-investigate becoming foster parents. We had many providential interactions with people who encouraged us to consider fostering a child; that reason, paired with the fact that the idea of paying tens of thousands of dollars to adopt was daunting after becoming completely debt free, pushed us to move forward with re-taking the foster care classes. Please allow me to say confidently: both of us firmly believe God is up to the task of supplying the funds for adoption, no matter the route we take; however, we felt it would be wise to at least investigate the option of fostering to adopt as a possible means to grow our family, and at the same time we would be helping other families reunite when at all possible. The children in foster care are, in many ways, the most in need of loving and safe families, whether they stay temporarily in our home or forever with us. Tim and I took the class about five years ago and, at that time, we didn't proceed with licensing; we decided back then we weren't in a place in our relationship where we would seriously consider adopting...which is one of the hopes if your foster child cannot be reunited with their birth parents/family. We didn't want to be just "one more stop on the road" for a foster child, so we thought it would be best to wait until the time when we both felt ready to foster and possibly adopt if the opportunity presented itself.
As we take this next step in our journey I would be lying if I said there isn't some level of trepidation and many, many unanswered questions. Am I up to this task? Will I be strong enough to survive the emotional ups and downs? How will Stella do with this? Is she even old enough to understand? Where will we put another child in this tiny apartment? How will our friends and families react to what we are about to undertake? And, let's get really honest here, can we truly love another person's child as much as we love our daughter by birth?
The bottom line: I feel Jesus is calling us, as a family, to this next step and so I trust first and foremost in His strength which is made perfect in my weakness. May He guide us as we finish up the process of getting licensed to foster and someday adopt!
