Foster Care

Well... we have thus far received 2 calls with regards to foster care! In 4 days, and we only have our temporary license! Wow.

Neither call worked out: the first one, they called our home phone when I was at Brennan's school and we didn't get the call till too late and they had already been placed with someone else. Last night we got the 2nd call for a sibling group that is currently in police-protective custody. We could have taken them; however, we really wanted to start all this as an emergency/respite placement home, rather than jumping in to a long-term placement FIRST. So, we declined; although, I must confess -- all our hearts were broken to hear the story of these kids. It's so sad how many kids are out there in broken situations.

But, one of the things this HAS done is to motivate us to get some things in order a bit more. For one thing -- we're changing rooms around. Brennan's moving to the guest room and Nate is moving to Brennan's room and then the room nearest to us will be the foster child(ren)'s room. Especially since we're licensed for younger kids, we want them to be closest to our room, and our boys are excited about switching rooms! :) We haven't quite figured out the guest room yet, but thankfully we still have a pull-out couch downstairs. Steve's parents are coming for Thanksgiving, so we're not going to move anything around till after that, though.

Also, Steve and I made a decision last night that I'm going to quit my job. I only work 10 hours a week; however, after last night and getting that call we were both realizing that I need to be home. I mean, these kids we got a call for last night are young, have been through A LOT, were placed in police-protective custody and now would be going to a long-term placement. So, we could have had them in our care last night and today I would have had to turn around and take them to a new daycare while I went to work. HUH?! That's just not right. So, we decided that I'm going to quit there and whenever God gives us 'the right' placement, that'll be my job -- just like I stayed home with my kids when they were young. I need to talk to my boss today and give him my notice, and may do some training, if they want me to, on a limited basis, where the kid(s) could be with me at the Y for a couple hours, but I'm not going to do membership anymore.

So...lots of changes. I really feel like the Lord has our family on an entirely new journey. This has been in Steve's heart for a LONG time and something he's always wanted to do, and my heart has slowly come alongside him. But, daily it's becoming more and more of a desire. I'm terrified, yes, because of all the unknowns, and yet I believe strongly this is God's next step for our family. Our boys are beyond excited, and Brennan was so mad that we didn't take the kids last night. ;)

But, we're also not jumping into this blindly, we really want to know that whatever kids are eventually placed in our home are the exact kids the Lord wants to place in our home, not just us taking kids in because our heart strings are pulled, ya' know?

So, that's the most recent foster care news. We shall see what God does. :)