Phew! That was a long road, but oh so worth it.

We started our foster care journey in December 2019. It had always been a goal of ours to one day become foster parents, we just had no idea when that would happen. Our original plan was have four children of our own first then foster to adopt. But our goal came a lot sooner than we thought. 

My inspiration for this came from my parents who were also foster parents while I was still living at home. They took in a couple of placements over the course of a few years – each child uniquely different. Some placements were all types of difficult while others were surprisingly easy. Eventually after a few years, my parents adopted three children from the foster care system after parental rights were terminated. I’ve always been inspired by this.

It was a spur of the moment type of thing for Robby and I. We were only going to attend an introductory class to foster care and that was it. We just wanted to see what it would entail, how it would work, how long the training classes would take. From there, we’d decide if we would want to continue or not. 

Turned out we could become licensed foster parents within 8-10 weeks. So we went with it. Every Sunday night we attended a three hour class while a family member babysat our little boy. I was also newly pregnant at the time. That’s what made me doubt the most because we would get licensed in April and baby would be due in July. How were we going to manage that?!

But we went through the classes and near the end, we learned that it was possible to hold off on getting a license for at least 6 months after finishing the training. This was what we set out to do. 

Then came May 17th and our whole world flipped upside down. Maggie’s diagnosis. It definitely put our foster care licensing on hold. 

Weeks went by, and then Maggie came along. Before she was born, we had finished every single detail required to become foster parents: CPR certifications, home studies, proper furniture, you name it. We were prepared even if we had no idea when the licensing would happen or if it would at all…

But shortly after Maggie was born, the feeling came back. It was the same feeling we’d received in the beginning when we were first inspired to start our fostering journey. But I was very reluctant. I was afraid to make a huge commitment and overwhelm myself especially with everything going on with Maggie. How would we handle it all? 

So we fasted and prayed for a full week. I prayed at least 2-3 times a day asking for the same confirmation. Is this the right thing? Should we go forward with it? Please help us to know if it’s the right time. 

Both Robby and I received the confirmation we needed. Normally I consider something not a good idea if I have constant, lingering doubts. But shortly after praying about foster care during this time, my doubts were vanishing one by one and I felt like my mind was clear. I didn’t have any “stupor of thought”, as they say. Robby confirmed that he felt this exact same way, as well. 

Robby and I are very good at planning ahead. We never make any big decision without serious contemplation and joint planning with each other. We do our best to cover every nook and cranny before moving forward and that’s what we did with this. We figured out a plan and we just went with it.

We’ve had our first placement of children for a full 24 hours thus far. They’re the same age as our son, and super fun. Maggie doesn’t come home for another week so we’re glad we got the children early so they have time to adjust and we have time to learn a good routine with them. We also have a nanny in place for when Maggie does come home which is key in helping me to be able to handle all four children at home while Robby’s at work. Honestly I would’ve never gone through with this if I didn’t have an extra pair of helping hands set in place. 

If you’ve been considering the foster care journey just know that it takes an absolute leap of faith. It’s not something to take lightly at all because you’re literally taking on the responsibility of another person’s child into your hands. It requires patience, love, and constant care. Every child is uniquely different but may have gone through terrible things and been shown some type of neglect. This naturally changes their behavior into one that the foster care training classes teach you to recognize and how to manage.

The foster care training classes are designed to cover every related subject from types of abuse to examples of actual cases. It’s easy to get scared and feel intimidated. In a lot of ways I think they do this on purpose. They don’t want foster families that are too reluctant to take in these children.

If you have any questions about the foster care journey, please feel free to reach out! I’m more than happy to help in whatever way I can.