Our Story: Two Ngs (Part 1)
Our journey started about six years ago. We had been married about two years and after trying to have a baby the old fashion way, negative pregnancy tests were getting old. We were at a cross roads: we could go the medical route/keep just trying or adopt. Medical route was not for us - we didn't want to get lost in a blame game or stress ourselves over something only God could control. Adoption it is.
We had always known we wanted to adopt eventually. At the time, we were babysitting for four boys on a weekly basis. One of the four was adopted out of foster care. We not only loved this family, but we got to walk alongside them - we even got to attend his adoption. It was beautiful to us that they saw him as their own. They opened their home, then advocated for all of his medical & educational needs. While we knew we would adopt someday, it wasn't exactly the way we thought we would start our family.
The planner in me immediately started researching adoption agencies. Domestic. International. Foster care. I got my thoughts together on each option & after speaking to each agency, we weighed the pros & cons. We decided to attend a foster care info meeting. By the end of the meeting I was sure this was something we should do.
I like to jump head first into things when I feel God is calling me to something. I jump first & think later. Ben - not so much. Ben wanted to do it, but knew the foster care licensing process would be intense. He wasn't 100% in, so we decided to wait. Six months passed & when we were on vacation at a friends' wedding he told me he wanted to pursue foster care.
Over the next 4-5 months we developed our home study with our foster care agency. We had physicals, a financial review, safety home inspections, training & interviews. It was intense. I was so glad we were both sure we were in at that point because while this was overwhelming for us, yet after meeting our kids we realizie it was the easiest part of the process.
Then we waited. And waited. The licensing worker had to do her part - she had hours of paperwork to complete. Before we knew it, we were coming up on our license date. We were just days away from receiving our official license when the phone rang. More tomorrow...
I like to jump head first into things when I feel God is calling me to something. I jump first & think later. Ben - not so much. Ben wanted to do it, but knew the foster care licensing process would be intense. He wasn't 100% in, so we decided to wait. Six months passed & when we were on vacation at a friends' wedding he told me he wanted to pursue foster care.
Over the next 4-5 months we developed our home study with our foster care agency. We had physicals, a financial review, safety home inspections, training & interviews. It was intense. I was so glad we were both sure we were in at that point because while this was overwhelming for us, yet after meeting our kids we realizie it was the easiest part of the process.
Then we waited. And waited. The licensing worker had to do her part - she had hours of paperwork to complete. Before we knew it, we were coming up on our license date. We were just days away from receiving our official license when the phone rang. More tomorrow...
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