Our Foster Family Journey Part 1 - Becoming a Foster Home

Our Journey on becoming a Foster Family.

Hello sweet Friends, Family, & Followers! I have been absent from my business for the last week. I maintained sending orders and responding to emails, but that was where it ended. I have had a few of you ask if things were okay, since I was so quiet on my business social media this last week. I wanted to explain my absence, and let you know of a new journey my family and I began … the journey of becoming a Foster Family.

Becoming A Foster Family

Last year around October we began the process of becoming a Foster Family / Foster Home. It is something that has been on my heart for a while, and God slowly started to place it on my husband’s (Ryan) heart. Becoming a Foster Family was a long road, but completely worth the wait.

I have wanted to foster or adopt for as long as I can remember. When my husband and I first stared dating I told him I wanted to eventually adopt some children from the system. He was open to hearing about my hopes and dreams, but he wasn’t quite on the same page. Once we were married we really began discussing it in great detail. We prayed about it often, asking God to bring us guidance. Three Sunday’s in a row, and one Wednesday at my husband’s bible study group, God spoke to Ryan. Ryan felt like it was time to jump in both feet and get started on becoming a foster home. It was amazing for me, because I was already 100% ready to start this journey. WELL as ready as you can be to become a foster family. We would soon learn that you are NEVER going to be fully ready for what is to come on this journey of fostering.

We started this thinking we would only take one child at a time. We have one sweet girl which most of you know by now, Lilly age 11. My husband travels with his job often, and I run my business working over 40 hours a week. I never in a million years thought I would want to “sacrifice” my business time. As a business owner and a momma, I struggle with the balance of mom and business duties! We thought one foster child at a time would be best for our family dynamic.

God Had A Different Plan

On Monday, February 8th, 2016 we received our first call late at night asking if we would be willing to take two little girls. Immediately I knew in my heart that we had to say YES. I waited for Ryan to get home so we could make a decision. We prayed and decided to take the girls into our home. I am not going to lie; we were very nervous! Taking in two young girls was going to turn our world upside down. We had only prepared a room for one kid, and had only mentally prepared for one kid. I have a Toyota Prius - you know the tiny little hybrid cars - and fitting three kids in the back was going to be a struggle. We had completely committed to each other and ourselves that we could only take on one child at a time for the beginning journey of becoming a foster family. BUT when we got this call, God was tugging on my heart strings to say yes. So we did.

We have quickly learned that trauma is real and trauma is very difficult to parent. You want the kids to feel like they can express themselves and their pain. You also have no idea how to handle that. The things you learn in your parenting classes do not even begin to cover what you need to know.

Ryan and I are working with wonderful people who are helping us with parenting methods for these sweet little girls. I had NO IDEA my heart could fall in love with two little girls so very quickly. We are excited for this journey of being a Foster Family, and would appreciate the prayers as it will not be an easy journey, but definitely one we know as a family we are meant to be on.

We brought two new members of our family home late that Monday night. We are unsure how long they will be with us, and honestly unsure on just about everything. One thing we are sure of … while they are here we will show them LOVE, MERCY, and GRACE. We are going car shopping this week, because an SUV is a must! We are also fixing up the girls room this week to fit two little kiddos!

See Part 2 of our Journey HERE!

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