Our Journey to Foster Care
Well it’s officially been over a month since baby girl and little guy moved in with us and I have to say it honestly feels like it’s been way longer than that! But time flies when you’re chasing around two little people around! Haha. I’ve had a few questions regarding our foster care journey that I thought I would answer today—how we got started, how we’re adjusting, and the most common question, are we fostering to adopt?
How our foster care journey started and placement happened
Foster care and adoption was always something that I wanted to do one day, but if I’m being honest, until we we struggled to get pregnant, I hadn’t thought too seriously about it. That was until last summer when we visited the PNW for our anniversary and stayed with Jason’s Aunt and Uncle, and got to spend some time with them and their family! They have 3 wonderful and beautiful children whom they adopted through foster care.
We shared our struggles to get pregnant, about our early miscarriage, and they understood it all because they had once been right where we were. After we left, I just kept thinking about everything we’ve gone through and the similar hardships they’ve gone through and now have these sweet kiddos that are officially a part of their family, all because they stepped out of their comfort zone and into God’s calling to love and care for them.
Ever since then, little things here and there kept coming up about fostering, through conversations with different people in my life, and then in the fall, I ended up meeting two foster moms at different places and with totally different stories, but their stories stuck with me and sparked my interest even more. It felt like God was slowly opening my eyes and heart to this great need more and more.
The more I thought and prayed about it, it felt like something that I not only wanted, but needed to do. We had the time, the means, a home, and all of the love to give, so Jason said “let’s do it!” Then the next day we contacted our local agency (U.P. Kids—for any of you locals who may be interested), set up a home visit, and started the long process of applying to become licensed! The stacks on stacks of paperwork, millions of questions, and hours of training. The whole process is a lot of hurry up and wait kind of thing haha.
During this time, I had been contemplating leaving my job to spend more time working on Harbor + Pine (and Grace + Gather was also in the works!!), but I didn’t know if it was the right time and wondered what other people might think, and I kept going back and forth for so long.
Then one Friday sitting at my desk, I was feeling stuck and just so ready to just finally make a move, but was also scared I wasn’t making the right call, so I just kept praying over and over for God to give me a sign. A sign that I’m supposed to leave this job and follow my passion to have more flexibility as a foster parent and business owner. Not even kidding, only a few moments later I received a message from one of the foster mom’s that I had met a few months prior that said she had heard that we were applying to become licensed foster parents and that they were having to disrupt their placement with their two littles. Literally I felt like I could see God’s hand working in that very moment. She had been praying for a couple like us to open their hearts and homes to foster and I had just been praying for a sign!! So there it was, I gave my notice that afternoon!
To make a long story a little less long, those two littles are now ours! Over the course of the next few months, we spent a lot of time with that sweet family and have become such great friends that we truly feel like one big blended family! Haha. It’s truly an act of God how it all played out and worked out. They have been the biggest blessing to us through out this crazy time and we couldn’t be more thankful for them!!
How are we adjusting?
To be as straight forward as possible, there are wonderful and sweet moments in each day, but there are A LOT of really, really hard moments as well. There is tantrums, yelling, and crying mixed in with a lot of hugs, kisses, and laughter. Adjusting from zero to two kids is no joke, especially during this pandemic where we can’t really go anywhere or see anyone, it feels even harder. But we are trying our best to give them the love, grace, and care they need during this time in their life.
Are we fostering to adopt?
It’s all in God’s hands, but as of right now, no. The plan for foster care is always reunification with the bio parents and that is still in the works for our kiddos, so all we can do is pray for God’s will to be done for everyone involved.
I’d be happy to answer any and all questions on fostering, so please comment down below or send us a message on Instagram!