Getting Started

My wife and I got started in foster parenting because of a miscarriage. We hadn't given it any thought up until then. After the miscarriage, my wife saw a fertility doctor. She did that because she was thirty-nine and it had taken her three years to get pregnant. The fertility doctor did a Clomid Challenge Test and told us she had a poor ovarian reserve. He suggested we look into adoption.

I'm a big believer that God engineers your circumstances. I think all the things we went through were part of getting us to consider adoption. We looked into private adoption and quickly discovered it would cost too much. So we looked into foster parenting. We knew it could be years before we would have a child in our home that would be available to adopt. We decided to let God handle it and not worry about it. He would place the child he wanted us to adopt in our home when it was the right time.

The child we adopted has been with us for eight years now. She was a week old when she was placed in our home. We fully believe God put her with us. It's been challenging and sometimes we feel like we are not up to it. She was born drug exposed. We've had to take her to physical therapy and occupational therapy and see a child psychiatrist. It's been a roller coaster. Sometimes we wonder why God put her with us. We feel so inadequate at times when she is so hyper it seems like she blasted off from Cape Canaveral and is on her way to the moon. She just goes so fast from one thing to the next it's exhausting trying to keep up with her.

Eventually she reenters the atmosphere and we try to provide her with a parachute so she'll have a soft landing. Sometimes she burns up on reentry and passes out on us. She gets real quiet and says she's tired. We waste no time getting her in her pajamas and her teeth brushed and in bed. Then we enjoy a few hours in the evening of peace and quiet. Through all that, though, we are so happy God chose us to be her parents.

Even though she's eight, we are still just getting started with her. She finished first grade in May. She has so much ahead of her. I'm excited about what God has in store for her and for us as her parents. The things He'll teach us along the way. Trusting Him to lead us and help us be the best parents we can be for her.