I've had a very difficult time writing here. Even though it's been a couple of years since this experience, the feelings are raw and painful. Very painful. But, it's time for me to heal. So, I am going to start at the beginning.
I never planned on being foster parents. My parents had foster children when I was growing up. Some painful things happened. But that will be another story for another day. What I'm saying, though, is that it wasn't my plan.
However, God put some kinks in our plans. We planned on having a big family, but we found ourselves with three children and a strong inspiration from God that we were done there. My heart was broken from that. I don't think I can quite explain the heartache a woman gores through when she cannot have more children. Only women who have experienced this can know. What makes it more difficult, though, is that we had two girls and then a boy. Our little boy asks for a brother almost every single day in one way or another. It breaks my heart every single time. His pleadings are what drove us to consider foster care.
We began the process of certifying as foster parents. It was a very long process. First of all, it was so much paperwork. So much! Then, there was the training -- 27 hours of training. I drove to a town 2 hours away every week, multiple times a week for training, and didn't get home until 11 pm at night. The training was intense, too. I think the hardest part of the training was the teacher. She was so negative about foster care after having been a social worker for so long. I didn't want to become like that. However, we felt driven to move forward with the process, so I completed the training.
Then, we found out about a local foster family agency and decided to proceed with them. I had to do the training again. I completed that and then we began working on the house study. That was where we hit another snag. We found out that the third bedroom in our home couldn't be used as a bedroom because it didn't have an egress. Since we only had three bedrooms with three kids and us, it caused some real problems. To make a very long story short, we ended up spending $14,000 to remodel our home so that we could foster children. And, that was the beginning of our fostering challenges.
It was a discouraging time. I wanted so much to have a little boy join our family. I wanted a brother for my son. And we kept getting delayed. But, we persevered, and we did eventually get certified as a foster family. That felt wonderful. However, our problems didn't end there.
I never planned on being foster parents. My parents had foster children when I was growing up. Some painful things happened. But that will be another story for another day. What I'm saying, though, is that it wasn't my plan.
However, God put some kinks in our plans. We planned on having a big family, but we found ourselves with three children and a strong inspiration from God that we were done there. My heart was broken from that. I don't think I can quite explain the heartache a woman gores through when she cannot have more children. Only women who have experienced this can know. What makes it more difficult, though, is that we had two girls and then a boy. Our little boy asks for a brother almost every single day in one way or another. It breaks my heart every single time. His pleadings are what drove us to consider foster care.
We began the process of certifying as foster parents. It was a very long process. First of all, it was so much paperwork. So much! Then, there was the training -- 27 hours of training. I drove to a town 2 hours away every week, multiple times a week for training, and didn't get home until 11 pm at night. The training was intense, too. I think the hardest part of the training was the teacher. She was so negative about foster care after having been a social worker for so long. I didn't want to become like that. However, we felt driven to move forward with the process, so I completed the training.
Then, we found out about a local foster family agency and decided to proceed with them. I had to do the training again. I completed that and then we began working on the house study. That was where we hit another snag. We found out that the third bedroom in our home couldn't be used as a bedroom because it didn't have an egress. Since we only had three bedrooms with three kids and us, it caused some real problems. To make a very long story short, we ended up spending $14,000 to remodel our home so that we could foster children. And, that was the beginning of our fostering challenges.
It was a discouraging time. I wanted so much to have a little boy join our family. I wanted a brother for my son. And we kept getting delayed. But, we persevered, and we did eventually get certified as a foster family. That felt wonderful. However, our problems didn't end there.
