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Open, Ready, and Waiting

We are once again an open foster home!

We were officially approved last Friday and opened for kids a couple of days ago. We are incredibly excited and so ready for that call that there is a baby who needs us.

As excited and ready to help as we are we also know that for us to get a baby like this it means that a family is being taken apart, and that is heart wrenching.

The jobs that I have had over the years have placed struggling families in my life in a variety of ways. Through working at daycares I was able to see so many working moms and dads striving to make the lives of their children good and fun. At Early Head Start I worked with some incredibly vulnerable families and children; the struggle these parents went through to make a good life for their children was evident. Some did a better job than others, some struggled constantly. These children lacked rules and boundaries and didn't know how to get love and attention without behaving badly. My work at the various children's hospitals opened my eyes to complication and heart ache that I never knew before. Life with a child who has a chronic illness is a challenge. From the families that I've seen this can either strengthen in ways you'd never think possible or it will destroy you. There were families I wanted to clone because of their dedication. There were families who lost custody of their babies because they couldn't deal with the magnitude of the child's illness. In my work as a developmental therapist I see everything from the most affluent of families to those in the lowest socioeconomic status and everything in between. There are foster kids, adoptees, preemies, and term babies. There are involved parents and there are disinterested parents. Families come in all shapes and sizes.

To be a foster parent requires a ton of heart. Heart that you know will ache in so many ways for these kids and families. Heart that you are willing to have pieces taken away with each child that comes into and subsequently leaves your home.

As I write this we are still in the active waiting phase of foster parenting. Waiting to get the call. Waiting for a placement. Waiting for a baby who needs us. Waiting to pray for that struggling family while we care for their baby.

We are waiting and hoping to share the love we have with a child and family; we are anxious to get that call while praying for the families who need some help. We are praying for those families and for our own; for our ability to care for these kids. While we are praying for this we also continue to pray for our own ability to have children; for me to get pregnant and carry a healthy baby to term.

We are waiting on God.

Join us in praying.

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