Month Three..

Soooooo.... Remember how sweet and happy my two month post was? Well month three proved to be a little more challenging. Things are getting real in our house and life has started getting messy. There are still good times, but there are lots of difficult times too. God has lead me to read several passages when I have really been struggling. Each time the verses remind me of our purpose for walking down this path.

I randomly opened the bible one night when I was having a very difficult day. I opened to Luke 6. Wow. What a gentle reminder of how I should treat my kiddos. 

^{Luke: 32} “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. ³³ And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. ³⁴ And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. ³⁵ But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. ³⁶ Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

 Just last night I felt like I needed to read Colossians. Wow God. Thanks. Another amazing reminder that we were all once hostile, evil, and alienated, yet the GOSPEL has reconciled us. We have HOPE in the gospel. We have HOPE in the hard times we are facing.

^{Colossians 21} And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, ²² he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, ²³ if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation^[g] under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

Two months!

I had a friend recently ask me what advice I could give her about foster care now that I am a foster mom. Her question got me thinking and these are the 4 main things I could come up with!

1.Foster care isn't as scary as I thought.
I had lots of fears going into the foster care world. I had heard a lot of horror stories. I was scared, but thankfully God gave me the desire to give this a shot. Our story has not been anything like the horror stories I had heard, or dreamed up in my head. It really could not be any better. Our big kids have adjusted great, Adelyn loves having older siblings,our families are a great help, and our big kids do great in social settings!

2. They are NOT their files.
A few minutes before we met our kiddos for the first time we had the brief chance to read their files. It was scary. I was panicked. I didn't know what we had gotten ourselves into. Fast forward a few weeks. I was re-reading their files and was laughing at how different they are in real life. They are just kids. Their past happened, but it doesn't define them. I had always heard that, but now I understand.

3. Older kids are AWESOME.
Plain and simple! I love that my kids can talk and are somewhat independent. It comes with challenges, but the advantages way out weigh the disadvantages.

4. Our marriage has NOT been ruined.
This was a biggggy. I had heard that foster care puts a huge strain on your marriage. Honestly, having Adelyn was way harder on our marriage than adding our two big kids. We work together and we laugh at the craziness going  on around us. We are a team have had a blast going through this together. I think we might even fight less now!

I prayed and prayed for us to have a positive experience with foster care. I can honestly say, this has been a great experience. I love our kids and I love this crazy, beautiful story I have been blessed to get to be a part of. We definitely have hard days and days when I think this wasn't such a good idea, but those quickly pass. God is making beauty out of ashes and I get to have a front row seat.

Adoption Update!

Hi there!! I just wanted to pop in and give an update on our Ethiopian adoption!! YES we are still adopting. We had a scare last month with the possibility of Ethiopia shutting down international adoption, but after much prayer and fasting our God gave us favor and the country is STILL OPEN! YAY! So here we are almost 2 years on the DTE list and still very far from getting our referral. I have no idea when we will get our phone call, but I do know the wait time is continually increasing. If you remember when we started this process back in 2011 (yes, you read that right ELEVEN), the referral  wait time was 10-15 months. We are closing in on waiting 24 months in March. The "official" wait time I heard was increasing to 36-42 months. The last family that received a referral for an infant boy waited for 34 months. SOOOO where does that leave us? Well, we are just buckling in and waiting it out! I don't know what God has in store for our family, but I do know that he blessed me with a beautiful baby girl and I am just enjoying her to the fullest while we wait to see what is next!!!

 

We were #47 on the list in August, then we went the wrong way to 49, now we are back to 47. Whew. This crazy adoption.