It's here!!!

It's finally here! Our foster license is finally here!!! We are officially licensed by the State of Washington to care for 2 children ages 2-10 in our home. YAY!!! I honestly thought this day would never come. Along with that we should be registered in WARE (Washington Adoption Resource Exchange) sometime today. WOOHOO!!!!

Here's the catch though; we are still waiting to see what happens with this situation with family because of course, that would be our top priority. We also still have NO IDEA what is going on with Ben as far as work stuff goes, so getting our license is both exciting and scary! We have really thought about it and decided that for right now we are not going to actively pursue finding foster children, but if a social worker were to call us we would have to weigh each situation individually. I think that is all that we can do for now until we feel more confident about the outcome of this potential adoption and where we (or Ben!) will be in the future.

One thing you can be praying about is that we will be meeting with this child and his parents soon. We are travelling to see both our families (yay!) and so we will have the chance to meet with them and (hopefully) get a better understanding of the situation. Please pray that the meeting goes well and that we can all walk away from it with a better understanding of what is best for everyone involved. Another thing that we need prayer for will be for the timing and financial aspect of this if it goes through. Since we had been planning to do foster care there is a lot less financial commitment involved than with a private adoption. We know that if God is directing this He will oversee the finances and that we don't need to stress about it, but a little prayer certainly won't hurt!

Love you all, and thank you for your support! I really feel like I can't say that enough!!!

B, E & H

Drenched

Note: This is a rewrite since I deleted the original post on accident... sorry!!!

As I opened the page to begin this blog I was immediately struck by just how appropriate the title of my last post was! Indeed, a couple of weeks ago it was the calm before the storm. Today I just feel drenched.

I don't even know where to begin with some of this, and I hope that it will make sense as I put it down in words. I do want to preface this with a disclaimer: I don't want to give many details because the situation has not yet worked itself out and it is quite a delicate situation. So please excuse my vaugeness and try to understand that wherever there are human feelings involved it can be quite complicated. That said, for right now all I really want to say is that we have been in contact with a family member who has a young child in her care. The parents of the young child are no longer together, and right now it appears that neither parent is capable of handling some of the special needs that this child has. Ben and I would love nothing more than to be able to take this child into our family and care for him, but in order to do that we need both parents to relinquish rights so that we could adopt the child. We did look into different levels of guardianship, temporary custody, etc., but none of these would allow us to put the child on our insurance and get him the best possible care. It also would seem that a stable situation would be of great benefit, so that is one more reason that pursuing an adoption would be best for everyone. Please pray for all of us involved, especially this sweet child who needs a loving, stable home where he can thrive, but also for the parents. I can't even begin to imagine what they must be feeling right now.

Along with that situation, we are in a period of uncertainty concerning Ben's Army career. Not that he is considering leaving the military, just that we don't know if we will be moving, facing a deployment or staying happily right where we are! Of course, we would love to stay in WA forever and never have another deployment, but I'm pretty certain that Uncle Sam won't stand for that. So... we are anxiously awaiting any news about what the future holds for us there as well!
Please pray for us to know what to do in each of these situations. I am a "planner" and all of this uncertainty is hard for me! I know that God has it all under control, but boy am I anxious to see what is next.

Love you all!

B, E & H

Coffee

Some days just feel a little overwhelming. And some days you just need more COFFEE! Apparently today is one of those coffee days. I got on here to write a new post and let you all know what is going on, and instead I accidentally deleted my last post! ARGH. Of course I haven't been saving them anywhere else, so if anyone happens to know how to recover a deleted blog post I'd really appreciate it! I will try to recap the idea of it so that I have it back in sequence. And then I will write my new one that I was going to write. But, first I'm going to go downstairs and make good use of that french press sitting on my counter ;)

Love you!

B, E & H

The Calm Before the Storm

Today is my day to sit back and just take it all in. Thanks to one of my amazing neighbors (and friend!) I am childless until this afternoon! I know I have probably said it before, but it's worth mentioning again. We have been BLESSED to have some of the most amazing neighbors. I honestly don't know what I would do without the ladies that live by me! We have playdates, kid swaps, coffee dates, crafting time... God truly knew what he was doing when he put us on our street!!! Anyway, all that to say that today I have about SIX HOURS to myself!!! Which is good because I feel like this is the calm before the storm.

This morning I called our agency to ask a quick question about some paperwork that they sent us (yes, the paperwork really is never ending!!!) and so I also asked about our license. She said that she was going to look it over today and as long as everything was there and it all looked good she would be sending it to the state this afternoon. Wow! I then asked her how long it would probably take for the license to arrive and she said that our region is typically pretty quick so she expected it to take just a couple of weeks. Oh, my! I'm excited. And scared. And nervous!

Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean that we will have a placement any time soon, but it does mean that we could! I feel like no amount of preparation will ever really help us get ready for what may come, but I sure am going to try my best to prepare anyway. So today I am going to do a little cleaning, some organizing, a lot of praying, a bit of paperwork, hopefully find a moment for a little fun stuff and make a few phone calls along the way.

Please understand if Ben and I are a little distracted over the next few weeks (or months!) as we have a lot of crazy little things to think about. For instance, in the newest batch of paperwork we have to check the box for "presenting behaviors" that we will be willing to consider. Let me tell you, this list of behaviors is SCARY! Aggressive toward other children, chronic bed wetting, fire setting, sexually acting out, extreme withdrawal, self abusive... and there are about thirty more on the list. So we have a lot of stuff on our minds even though we don't yet have to deal with any of this. I'm pretty sure our distraction will only get worse, and we are trying our best to live in the present, but we also recognize that our lives are about to be turned upside down. One interesting thing that I have noticed is that all of this has really helped me to put things into perspective of what is important and what isn't. Hopefully I can keep that mindset :)

Okay, the clock is ticking so I had better get moving before it's time for Hunter to be back home! Please keep praying for us, for our child/ren and for our sanity! Ha! Things are going to start moving quickly and we will need all the support we can get. THANK YOU for being that support for us, we appreciate it more than you will ever know!

Love you all!

B, E & H

I love mail!

Today when I opened the mailbox there was a big envelope sitting there from our agency. Since I wasn't expecting anything from them I was a little concerned about what I might find inside. I didn't even wait to get in the house to open it! As soon as I pulled into the garage I tore it open to find a letter that said:

"Dear Friends,

I am pleased to inform you that your homestudy has been reviewed and approved."

OH HAPPY DAY!!! I don't know much more than that, and we still have to wait for the state to issue our foster license, but I am pretty sure that this means that our fingerprints are back from the FBI and it should be 3-4 weeks for the state to finish our license and then we can start taking calls about placements!!!

Anyway, just wanted to let you all know the good news! I'm off to go play legos with a little guy who is complaining of an earache. The life of a stay-at-home mom is a busy one you know!

Keep the prayers coming, it sure seems like they are working!!!

B, E & H