"Labor" Day

     I love children.  I love adoption and seeing children find wonderful loving homes! I love having a huge, sometimes chaotic family. We started parenting 15 years ago with the birth of our first child. Even at that time Jeff and I knew we wanted to adopt.  We individually knew we wanted to adopt before we were married. After the birth of our first child we signed up for our local foster care agency.  We took the training (what little there was 14 years ago) went through the home-study/psych eval/home invasion. And it just wasn't God's timing. We suffered through a miscarriage. Delt with diappointment and loss. And wondered why. When our daughter was 3 we were blessed with another child. Yet we still had a desire to adopt. We again sufferd through another miscarriage when our second child was 1. I was finished with pregnancy!
We went on with life and enjoying our girls. Yet I still felt there was a hole in our family.
In 2002 we again felt like we were supposed to get licensed to become adoptive parents with our local children's services (not foster parents-adoptive). We finished our training that summer. And we waited....
In August 2003, while on vacation our friends who were with us, pulled out a baby blanket. They said God told them we were going to be blessed soon and that this blanket was a physical reminder of the child that was coming soon. It was to wrap that child up in when we took them home.
      A couple of months later, God spoke to me and let me know that DCS would be calling and that we were to take that child. They did call, but they needed a "foster" home for a newborn. It was Labor Day weekend and they didn't have any open foster homes. We were not going to foster. HA, God had other plans. We accepted the placement. Our friends helped us rush to get everything together in 12 hours for a newborn. It had been 5 years since we had a baby and we had gotten rid if everything!
When we went to pick him up one worker said "Oh, his Mom will never get him back....", another said "There are always family members who want the babies.". We just took him home(in the blanket our friends gave us) and loved him the same way we loved our girls. After a long two years of ups and downs and trusting God, we finalized our adoption and he is ours forever.
     We took a break from foster care. Then in 2005 we again felt God calling us to help children. We were just going to take 30 day emergency placements. God must sit and laugh at us so often. Our first "emergency" placement stayed for 3 months then went to a wonderful relative. We have had several other short term placments. We currently have an "emergency" placement who we love dearly and who has been with us for 2 years. Our other wonderful little guy has been with us since birth, for 10 months.    
     We have continued to have a great desire to adopt and add to our permenant family. We have submitted our home study on numerous children in need of an adoptive home.  Sometimes, I wonder why we are a good enough family to foster parent a child, but not adopt one. I have many times thought of how much easier it would be just to adopt from overseas. More expensive, but with a definite timeline and end to the process. But, this is the place to which God has called us. My husband, when he was a teenager, would share how fun he thought it would be to have 10 kids.  He had become more conservative by the time we got together :). And, no, we are not planing on having 10 kids.
     Through everything I remain passionate about children. Especially those in need of loving families. I am very excited to see how God can use us in the future. I am reminding Him of how badly I want to go to Africa and minister to children there! I know I am going sometime. I know he has a plan for the children in our family. I know I need to pray and trust Him. I also really like to be in control!!!! Somehow He just doesn't want to share the drivers seat with me. And reminding myself of all He has done for us helps. Somedays though, it just seems like it is so much easier for other families to fulfill their dreams.

Suitcases

A suitcase.  Chances are, if you own one, it is stuffed in a closet, up in your attic or maybe cramed under your bed. You haul it out and dust it off for family vacations, a retreat or a required conference for work.
If you are a foster child, a suitcase is a luxury.  Most foster children arrive in care with little more than the clothes on their back.  Maybe a few items in a Walmart or garbage bag. Then, as they travel back and forth to visits at home or maybe move to another foster home they pack up their belongings in a nice new suitcase.  Wait, no,  a lot of the time they get to use that wonderful device for transporting clothing.....a plastic bag. Hummm, how many people would feel proud to carry their kitchen garbage bag full of their precious belongings on their next trip away from home. You know, filled with all those important items that we sometimes spend extra cash to "insure" for travel.  As you can probably tell, it infuriates me to have a child arrive at my home with their belongings (items that are SO very important to them) in a trash bag or maybe if they are lucky, a department store bag with handles.  It makes me even more mad when they arrive at my home like this after a transfer from another foster home. I can somewhat understand when they are quickly removed from a dangerous situation.  But, there is no excuse to send a child out to another home or back to their home with their belongings in that manner.  That being said, a wonderful lady recently wanted to organize a group to collect suitcases for children in foster care. When I heard her idea I thought it was great.  I haven't heard anything more about it, so....I am toying around with ideas/ways to raise money to buy suitcases or duffle bags for Foster children. I know you are on the edge of your seat. But, we're still brainstorming ideas in my home. So, if anyone has some creative juices flowing in their veins-suggest away.

Currently there are over 11,000 children in foster care in Missouri.

Over 2,000 children are waiting for a forever family.

Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves..  Prov 31:8a