Our Story

Foster care is a really interesting thing.  

Last July we received a call from our caseworker. The coversation went a little bit like this:

Caseworker: "Amy, birth mom is expecting a baby. Would you and Joel be willing to take another baby?"

Me: I'm pretty sure. We've always said we would. We want a big family and would love our little man to have a birth sibling, but let me check with Joel to make sure"

Caseworker: "Ok, sounds good. I should also let you know that she is DUE ANY DAY"

Me: "ummm, ok"

Meanwhile, Instant Panic.  

We were completing an International Triathlon in 5 days and leaving in 2 weeks for our summer vacation for 10 days.  We would need to rearrange our entire home, our entire life, make a million newborn purchases including a car seat, crib, & clothing. We had  a major race to complete, needed to consider taking a newborn to the beach or consider cancelling our vacation...AND not let our already "unplanned for a baby" life stop for a second.  This moment of panic must be the reason God gives pregnant mom's 9 months to prepare.

Another baby?  Our little guy isn't even 1 yet! How can I expect him to be a big brother when he is still a baby? Does this really mean I can't carry him around everywhere because my hands will be full with baby #2? He's not ready, I'm not ready for him to be a toddler yet. 

Back on the phone to our caseworker: "Count it as a YES. I'll talk to Joel in a couple hours. If he says no, then I'll call you back right away, but I'm 99% sure he'll say yes"

The next few days felt like a whirlwind. We decided to make a couple major purchases, like a crib and start making lists of everything we needed in case the baby showed up.  But in case the baby didn't, why turn our life into a chaotic whirlwind?  

So we lived life. We completed the triathlon. We went on vacation. We were anxious. We were excited. We had a million questions. We waited and waited and waited and were told week after week, "baby is due any day".  

By the end of Sept, we received the news that birth mom was not due until 2012. I was honestly relieved.  The baby was alive and healthy. I had more time to watch our son turn from a baby into a toddler, and more time to prepare our little family to grow. 

The crazy part about foster care is that you never know anything for sure. To help people from asking too many questions that we may or may not become sick of answering, we chose to just break the news to close friends and family.  As time marches on and our home has an extra nursery and our hearts grow with anticipation, we have started sharing with more people, but it is always an interesting conversation.

I understand why. I understand that people are excited for us, but they feel a lot of sadness that another baby may be placed into the foster care system. 

I understand that I do not have a cute ultrasound photo to share or a big belly for all to see and that the reason for excitement in my life means loss for another mother. I understand that foster care is a tricky mess. I understand this conflict of emotion that others have for us because we feel it too. We are excited, anxious, over joyed, while at the same time feel the heart ache of the situation.  

Caseworkers told us to prepare for baby #2 to join our family, but we will not know for sure if this little one is entering our home until we are holding this baby in our arms. We are hoping and praying that this will happen in the next month or so.

Until then, we prepare. We prepare the same way any other 9 month pregnant mommy is preparing right now too. We place another car seat in our car, wash a million newborn outfits, and make sure we have everything this little girl or boy may need his or her first few weeks of life.  We wait and hope that we'll be holding a sweet newborn in our arms soon. 

We are thankful for our family and friends who have been so supportive of our journey and have shared in our excitement.  Thankful for these precious little children. Thankful for a God who walks through this path of parenting and season of uncertainty with us. Thankful for what might be our last few full nights of sleep for a while.