Our Big Announcement

We've announced our big news to our families and friends as well as mailed out our official announcements (you can check those out here). Now, I can finally announce the news on here…

We're becoming Foster Parents! 

We're very excited for this transition in our lives, and having so much fun preparing our house and lives for these new additions. Anyone who has had children knows how much baby stuff there is out there, and we're thoroughly enjoying picking out what we like best. One of us has loved decorating the nursery and toddler bedroom (hint: it's not Jordan!). However, Jordan has made the playroom his special project, and it's been fun to see how enthusiastic he gets. 

Since foster care is an entirely new idea for some people, we wanted to take some time to answer a few questions that may be on your mind. Our goal is to open up the line of communication between us and our loved ones, and help others understand what exactly it is that we're doing. 

Why foster care?  Many people have asked us why we are becoming foster parents instead of having biological children. Well, to put it simply: we want both! We want to build our family through birth, adoption, and foster care. Each child that enters our home under any circumstance will be part of our family and equally cared for and loved :) We have many friends and loved ones who have entered our lives through foster care and adoption, and we feel very strongly this is something we want to do. There are thousands of  children in the Ohio foster care system alone. All of those children are in need of love and understanding. We have been blessed with so much more than we need and we can’t imagine not sharing our home and time with these children.

“Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.” 

-Mark 9:37

Will you choose what children you take in? Yes. The training course we are taking goes over all of the possible scenarios and issues foster children may be dealing with. We are assigned a case worker who will go over our personal strengths and we will decide what situations we can best handle. Because we hope to be able to adopt our foster child(ren), should that become an option, we are planning to become licensed for up to 3 children (ages birth-3 years).  There is a huge need for foster families willing to take sibling groups, which is why we are becoming licensed for so many children at one time. 

Won’t it be hard not to get attached? Not hard, impossible. The point of foster parents is to build strong, healthy attachments and bonds with their foster children. These children have been through more than most people have to deal with in a lifetime. They need loving parents, stability, patience, and attention. It will definitely be an emotional roller coaster for us. We will love these children very very much and do all that we can for them while they are with us, even it’s just for a short while. It will be exciting, scary, and heartbreaking. It will be extremely difficult to not be selfish, and support reunification with birth families if that is what’s best for our foster children. However, it will all be worth it for the chance to make a positive influence in the life of even one child. 

How soon are you expecting foster children? We have a few more weeks of classes and then a home inspection by the state. We were told that the entire process typically takes 60-90 days, which would mean we should be licensed and able to receive placements by early March.