As most of you know already, we started the process of becoming foster parents in February 2010. It was a last minute decision for us to go to the training in San Antonio that weekend (Valentine's), but it was evident that God had planned it for us long before we did. By Tuesday March 16, we were licensed, and Friday, March 19, we received a call to foster a little girl who was born 10 weeks premature, but who was now 6 weeks old and needed to be discharged from the NICU of St. Joseph's Hospital. We brought her home on March 23, and we called her Anna. She was with us for 2 months before she was moved to the home where her older brother was just adopted. Talk about on-the-job training! We had to learn how to take care of infants in a weekend, but the nurses were great and gave us tips and let us stay at the hospital overnight to "practice" getting up in the middle of the night, and trying to feed a sleeping infant. When she moved, she had doubled her weight (we brought her home weighing 5 lbs 7 oz, and she left weighing almost 11 lbs).
At the time Anna moved, we were pretty devastated, even though we trusted in God's plan and knew that He was the one moving her. We just didn't understand why we had to give her up. It hurt so much!
Summer arrived like a tornado as it usually does around here, which probably helped us get on with life and adjust to not having Anna in our home anymore. And wouldn't you know it that on June 22 we got a call about 2 boys ages 2 months and 16 months that needed a home? So on June 24, "Mr. C" and "Little Man" came to live with us (I won't post real names here).
Looking back I can see how our time with Anna prepared us to be ready and willing to help these 2 little boys. Being new parents, there is no way we would have said yes to a 2 month old and a 16 month old right away. But after learning how to take care of an infant, we felt more confident about having the skills, or at least the resources to obtain the skills to love and care for 2 boys under the age of 2 a the same time. :)
So now these 2 active, lovable boys have been with us for 7 weeks, and we are completely in love. We know that they may not stay with us forever. God may choose to return them to their parents and heal that broken family. Or He may choose to blend a new family and allow them to stay with us forever. We won't know until it happens. But in the meantime, we are loving these boys and enjoying life as parents who get little sleep, have little "adult only" time where we're actually awake, and who love every minute of it.
What an adventure 2010 has turned out to be for us! And many of you (probably all of you reading this) had a huge part in making the adventure happen for us. When we brought Anna home, we had nothing for a baby. My cousin Stephanie in Houston rallied her friends along with my Aunt & Uncle and they loaded us up with bouncy seats, bottle warmers, baby clothes, diaper bags, blankets, baby bath tubs, an infant car seat, etc. So many people stepped up to help us acquire all the necessities that we would need to care for Anna. And our camp family here threw us a baby shower and loved on us and celebrated with us as we began our parenting journey. And again, when our 2 boys arrived, many of our friends offered boy clothes and let us borrow more baby/toddler paraphernalia (swing, double stroller, toys, etc). And the best gift of all was our friend Natalie offering to watch the boys for 2 nights while we got away to celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary. What a trooper!
I don't have pictures to post with this since I don't have it password protected. But you can check out the shutterfly site or facebook and find pictures if you're interested/haven't seen them yet.
Thanks for joining us on this journey and supporting us along the way, too. It has been such a blessing to watch God work, to lean on Him for wisdom and to have faith in the future He has planned out for us.
