Foster/Adopt Has Begun

I guess this post is a long time coming but I wasn't (and still am not) sure what to put in it.  I would like my faithful readers and especially the ones we don't talk to on a regular basis to have a least a general idea what is happening on this front though since it is very important to us.

Present: To start in the present Matt and I have embarked on a journey to get certified to do foster care in our state.  We are right in the middle of our 27 hour course on foster care, have had our first home visit and are filling out the paperwork that is required of us.  The class has been interesting and even at times boring but overall a great experience.  Our licensing agent seems wonderful and like she will be a great resource and help to us.  And the paperwork is not as bad as everyone says it will be (we've got a long way to go though).

Future: Moving on to the future and why we are doing this.  Our goal out of this whole process is to be parents to children who don't have parents who are capable of doing the job.  We would be honored if the opportunity arose for us to adopt a child(ren) in this whole thing.  We know the reality is not every child can live with their birth families so we want to be there to help when that can't happen.  I'm not really sure what else to say about this because so much is unknown. Yes, we've considered and talked about details with our licensing agent like the age of the kids we'd accept etc. but I'm not really going to get into that here.  We just want to be God's hands and follow His lead.

Past: I said this post is a long time coming because the formal process has just begun but God began a process on our hearts long ago.  I've thought about some form of adoption since I was in college and wrote it down (that's how I remember when I started thinking about it).  I can't speak for Matt's views before marriage but I know when we first got married we had adoption on our list of passions.  We originally said we were going to procreate 4 kids and adopt a fifth.  The number we wanted to procreate quickly went from 4 to 3 and then a little more slowly to 2.  We felt very strongly that the next step God was putting on our hearts was to wait until Caleb was 18 months old and then go from there.  So, here we are now (see Present).

I'm not really good at writing long eloquent posts about my heart in this whole matter.  I don't know how much I'll feel at liberty to post on this blog as we go through this but I'm more than happy to talk about what's going on if anyone is more curious.  I'll try to keep you all posted as things change or as we go through this.  I want whatever kid(s) that come into our home to know how much we love them and how much God loves them.  So, hopefully my posts will help communicate that if they ever see them.  It's part of their story:)