A New Kind of Waiting...

Dear Friends,

I am very excited to share the news that we have recently been approved by the State to become foster parents.  In October of last year, Harris and I began our classes to get our license.  We did 60 hours of classwork and are now licensed to receive up to 4 children!  My infertility support group purchased a crib and mattress set for us in order to get the 1st nursery up and running.  Once that came in, the flood gates were sort of swept open and I began nesting.  I now have a nursery with a (very loose) travel theme, a pink bedroom perfect for a little girl, and a neutral bedroom with all of my teaching things organized like a little library.  The rooms are perfect - and they've been a family production.  Harris' parents made custom book ledging for us, and then even came and helped to get a peel-and-stick tree put up on the wall.  The last design piece going into the room will be family photos that I cut into a repeating leaf pattern and add to that tree.

So, now we are in a different sort of holding pattern as we wait for the phone to ring with news of a child to place in our home.  Our foster/adoption consultant knows that we want a child who is most likely to have parental rights severed and be up for adoption.

In an ironic twist, the day our license arrived, we received a call asking about placing a family of five kids, all under the age of 6, with us.  Whew!  That was a lot, and we turned it down because we felt like the parents had been able to maintain custody with no problem for almost 6 years.  So, it was extremely likely that they would get the kids back.  Neither Harris or myself thought that we should start our foster journey with that many kids who would all be leaving.

We are so hopeful that everything will start coming together soon for our family.  Until then, we wait...