Our license is being sent in!

After almost a year of calling around to different agencies, gathering paperwork, filling out various forms, submitting to fingerprints, personal references and background checks, taking CPR First Aid and CORE classes, as well as the homestudy, our Placement coordinator (a real prince of a guy) called today to let us know that our foster family certification paperwork is being submitted to the the state. He said that for some reason, it takes them about four weeks to turn the application around and issue a " provider number" but just to hear that he is sending our license in today brought tears to my eyes (which was followed by deep sobbing that I was not at all expecting). It is as if I have finally been told when my baby might be born (in general, just like a real due date, with no guarantees). I feel nervous now, waiting to find out if we will be finally approved by the state of Colorado, but I can't imagine why we wouldn't be approved.

I have no fingernails left to chew, but I haven't smoked a cigarette! Time to start knitting?

Mike is on a field trip with Hammy. I have to go shower and get ready with Moose and am looking forward to telling Mike and Hammy that we are getting closer to bringing a baby/child home at last!

Throughout this process, I have questioned so much and done a lot of growing and soul-searching. I feel like my relationship with God/my Higher Power has deepened and is stronger now, and now I truly know the freedom of trusting in something greater than myself and my will. I sincerely believe that everything is unfolding just as it ought to be, and that every step of this journey has been purposeful in our preparation. I also see that this is only the beginning!

Last night, as Mike read a "Help Me Be Good" book to the boys, I listened in the next room and just beamed, realizing what a cohesive family we are and how we really are ready to welcome a child who needs to be loved into our home. And without being negative, I hope to candidly and honestly address in this forum many of the questions we have asked along the way, in hopes that it might also help to answer some of the questions that family and friends have been asking, even if it not directly of us! (E.g. Why we don't we just "make" another baby of "our own"?)

So stay tuned and feel free to comment. It's my hope that someday another momma who is trying to get her head around foster-adoption will stumble upon this little blog, find that she's not alone on her path of love, and maybe even find some answers to some of her questions about how foster-adoption works. The most important thing to know, and the greatest lesson I have learned so far, is that every single requirement is in place for a reason, and is for the protection of the very children we hope to help. Trusting in the process isn't easy, and patience is indeed a virtue; but in the end I think that the fact that it can take several months to a year to have a child placed in ones home is part of the plan. If it happened too quickly, surely it would fail or be very difficult on the family that must be stable for the child in upheaval.

A Blessed Foster Momma-to-be