In one of the most challenging years in most of our lifetime - a year has flown by. Becoming certified by our agency to foster and adopt, completing all of the checklists and online classes, participating in ongoing continuing education trainings, working from home, career changes and navigating a world in 2020 we never thought we would...somehow it has has been an entire year since we became a certified resource family. One. Whole. Year. When we first opened as a resource family our age range for foster and adoption was for less than a year old. While we did receive several phone calls concerning that age range, ultimately none of those foster or adoption situations worked out for our family. There were times we were confused, and there were times we were crushed when we received news of these children joining other families. But, that's part of the journey - hope and heartache all rolled into one. Now that we've been open for a year, we opened up our age range to receive foster or adoptive phone calls for children under the age of 3.
I can say, without a doubt, the last year has changed Mike and I. At times I find myself speechless about everything we have been through in the last year. It's been a year of waiting. A year of heartache. A year of doubts. A year of tears. A year of anxiety. A year of questioning everything we ever knew about life. Yet, despite how eye opening the last year has been, we are stronger. We are stronger as individuals. We are stronger as husband and wife. We are just stronger. There is NOTHING in this world that can prepare you to become a parent. Nothing. Whether you choose to have natural born children, or go down the path of foster parenthood or adoption - there isn't a manual or book that can prepare you for your entire life to change. Children change you. Becoming a parent changes you. Thinking about becoming a parent changes you. And while we still wait for the "right call" I know in my heart of hearts, our children are out there. Whether they haven't been born yet, or the world is waiting to make that phone call to us, the reason we are still waiting is because our time hasn't come yet.
Often in the colder months, I took to reading books in the the nursery/kid's room we have prepared. While many cold nights were spent wrapped in a blanket, reading...I often dreamt in this room. I would think of what an awesome room Mike and I have put together for a little one. I would dream dreams for our future children in this room. I would think how lucky a child would be to have such a special room where they would feel safe and loved. While that room sits empty, I know it will be filled with love soon. In the meantime, we continue to connect with the resource family community. We do our best to help newly placed foster families with whatever needs they have. We continue to educate ourselves and learn about the foster and adoptive world. More recently we started participating in post adoptive training through our agency which has been a wonderful added training to our knowledge book. We continue to find social media accounts to follow of foster families, connect with other resource parents online and grow our children's book collection of unique books that can help our future children.
We have been so wonderfully blessed with amazing friends and family who have helped us prepare our lives for starting our family. From gently used books, toys, furniture, baby and toddler items - we are so very grateful for the support we've received while going down this path. More importantly, the ears our friends and family have lent to us and listened to us talk about our journey - there aren't enough words to say thank you.
Here are some snapshots of the room we wait to fill with love.
