Shortly after the loss of our dog Bailee and our twins things started looking up. I am praising Jesus for that. My husband went shopping at our local wal*mart and ran into a caseworker we worked with years ago. Technically 7 years ago. She was one of the best casworkers we worked with. She was our son Corey's caseworker when we got him. At first Mark and the caseworker looked at each other and said to one another that they each looked familiar to one another. Keep in mind we havent seen this caseworker in 6 years. After a few seconds Mark said oh your are so and so and then she remembered Mark. They began to talk and Mark told her the story of us losing our foster son after 3 1/2 years. She said that isn't right at all. We were working with Berrien County DHS at the time. During this time Berrien County DHS was going downhill and rather quickly. It was sad. We had so many good memories from DHS and it was terrible the things that were happening. We were licensed for 8 children and they took that away from us and told us we could only have 6. It seemed that every day they were hating us more and more. I am not trying to toot my own horn but we were told we were one of the top 3 best foster homes in the county. So we went from being great to being terrible somehow and we have no idea why. We were told we would never be able to have anymore children ever. So during the time Mark was talking with this caseworker she told Mark she left from Berrien county DHS and went to Van Buren County DHS. Not only that she was the foster care licensing specialist their not just a caseworker anymore. She began to tell Mark that she could allow us 8 children again. What awesome news. Thank you Jesus. So she began to work on reopening our license and transferring our license from Berrien County to Van Buren County. This was happening in April.
So our home study and paperwork we sent in and we were waiting. I hate waiting. lol Now it is June and we were on vacation for 10 days. We got a call 5 days into our vacation that our home study and our license was approved and that they needed a placement for 2 girls ages 10 months and 2 yrs. They were sisters. Our license had just been approved 3 hours prior to the removal of the girls. Talk about great timing!
We now needed to make a decision if we should pack up and go home or stay for the rest of our vacation and pick the girls up when we got home. We couldn't imagine our girls going to a different family for 5 days and then coming to us after they had just been removed form their parents. That would be way to much for them and way to much moving around in just 5 days. So we talked with all the kids and asked then what they wanted. We didn't want to take our kids vacation away either and so we thought it would be best to ask the kids. If the majority wanted to stay we would, but if the majority wanted to pick up the girls we would do that. God is amazing because ALL the children agreed right away that should go get them. They were all very excited and couldn't wait. So we decided to leave the next morning because at this point it was getting late and the caseworker suggested to wait until the morning. Plus we were about 5-6 hours away and we wouldn't have gotten into town until at least 10:00.
We packed up the next morning and made it into town and to the foster home where they stayed the night around 6:00. I was so excited but also feeling guilty for calling off the remainder off our vacation. The kids didn't seem to mind, but my mommy heart felt so bad. We new this was the calling on our lives and we know we need to always be prepared to to do the work of The Lord. We are so thankful we obeyed. We initially saw Abygail as the foster mom met us on the porch while holding Aby and it was instant love at first sight and has been ever sense. Zoe was inside and I couldn't wait to see her and hold her too. It was also love at first sight with Zoe. I was in love and I was super excited that God allowed us to be foster parents again.
We still have the girls and we are still in so much love if not more than the first day they came to us. We have had so much joy with them and it is so fun having some more little ones around again.
Creating smiles on Gods beautiful children. I love to see a happy and joyful child. It brings so much joy to my heart. I pray that God blesses us with many more children, whether by adoption or biologically. My heart, my home and arms are ready to receive as many children as God wants us to have.
Welcome to my mini home and a glimpse into my life with 9 children. 7 of my children are 5 and under so we never have a dull moment in this "establishment". My husband and I had a totally different idea of what life for us was going to be like. When I met my future husband we had the "how many kids do you want talk". I told him I wanted 8 childrena and he said no way. We negotioated to 3 children. Little did we know that God had different and bigger plans. Sit back, relax, and enjoy my circus of a life :)
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