Life: Adoption, Foster Care and Us

I was in middle school attending a party of sorts at my friend Olivia's house, but this story has nothing to do with her. I had met her brother Colin ( who looked different than Olivia) before but it had not clicked to me that they were not a mixed family household like mine (Dad from England, stepmom and stepbrother from Mexico, stepsister half Mexican and blonde hair blue eyed me). 

My Siblings and Me Incognito

I lived in a bubble where I had not had much interaction or talk about the word adoption other than the Summer Camp and Christian concert pleas to adopt a child monthly(which after this moment I had to drag myself away from each time because I wanted to adopt all the kids but didn't have income of my own at 14 ). That night my eyes, heart and mind were blown open to the world of adoption. I do not completely remember the details of the night, other than walking away with the desire and passion for adoption. In the same explosion of the heart, I felt like I was being lead to start my family through adoption. 

Many people asked "why?" as I have shared over time that I would like to adopt before having children myself, and something I had taken away from that night was being able to adopt and welcome the child to the family, letting them know they are our child, and not a second choice. Does that mean biological children are a second choice?- of course not, but I can not fight that God has laid that specific instance on my heart for the past 15 years, or the fact that there is nothing prohibiting us health wise from having biological children. I can say I have struggled over the past 8 years when I have seen people have children, or adopt children, even though I know in the back of my mind that this is where I truly feel called. Coming home has been hard because the older generation does not accept this very well, or the fact that I have been married 8 years, have nothing wrong and haven't had a child. 

8 years of Adventuring with this guy!

Now onto the flowering of the desire to foster, and adopt from the foster system. I think this desire was planted around 2013, I know that during that year I was working for a church that had a thriving Foster/Adoption ministry and I heard snippets about it during my time on staff. I went home and share my thoughts about it, but since we were in a transitional season of searching for our next ministry position it did not seem like the best time to pursue it. Then when we relocated to Indiana in 2014, it has still on the back of our minds as we got settled in.

One day John received a call from a Christian foster agency in the area asking if they could send information to share with the church, and John agreed and brought home the packet to look through. We submitted for an interview with their team the next day. Over the next few months we went through trainings, and room set up and inspections, then in September of 2015 we found out that there was not going to be funding to continue full time in Indiana, we had to make the toughest call of all, letting our agency know that we were not going to be able to continue because we were going to be leaving the state of Indiana. A little known fact about the foster world: Foster Licenses do not transfer from state to state( at least the states I have chatted with).

Now that we are in a transitional state again, we continue to seek ways to serve the foster realm. Right now I am in the middle of a fundraiser for Together We Rise (organization) to bring Sweet Cases for SA (my fundraising page). Sweet Cases are duffle bags that can be decorated and filled with a teddy bear, blanket, hygiene kit, and coloring kit, and I will be donating them to a local foster agency once received. Why Sweet Cases?- children entering foster care often are rushed to find something to pack with and are handed giant garbage bags to fill with their belongings to go to their foster home, this Sweet Case would allow the children to be handed the duffle to be used as they are taken to a place unknown. I am super excited to be able to serve foster kiddos in this way, and encourage you to find how you can serve foster and adoption communities in your area too. 

#NoMoreTrashBags for Foster Kids

signing off from our state of waiting: Texas!

<3 A