Family of Five

Before Vince and I were even married or thinking seriously about starting a family, we agreed that ideally - if God saw to it to give us children - we wanted to grow our family through both biological children and adoption. This seemed natural and right.

Fast forward 10+ years of marriage and two amazing little boys later... Last year we started the process of becoming foster parents in hopes of being able to adopt through the foster program. And this past June on a Friday afternoon we became certified by our county to be foster parents. The following Monday morning we received a call asking us if we could take in 2 brothers - ages 3 and 5. It was that quick. And it was more than we felt ready to handle. We still had bedrooms to rearrange and impending house guests and mentally were not ready to commit - though it broke our hearts to think that there were two little boys sleeping in strange beds that night.

We turned down a number of potential babies and children over the next few weeks until we received another Monday morning call. A baby boy had been born at Crouse the previous Thursday and his mother, who had lost three children previously to foster care and eventual adoption, would not be taking him home. That was the extent of what we knew. When you are trained to be a foster parent you are told over and over and over that the ultimate goal of the foster care system is to return the children to their family. When that is not possible, obviously other options - adoption - are explored. We knew this.. Yet it was hard to go to the hospital, pick up this new tiny little baby and not start envisioning how easily he could be a part of our family forever. We fell in love. But in time we also learned more about his family and knew we had to root for them. It quickly became evident that this baby would not be ours to keep.

For one month exactly we were a family of five. We brought Baby Michael this morning to his discharge appointment at the county health clinic and he is now in the care of his paternal grandparents who are allowing his mother to stay with him at their house until she and Michael's father can take full custody. We do not know if this is the end of Michael's story because if we have learned one thing from all this it is that you never really know what is going to happen. And while this morning was very emotional for me, I am happy that things have turned out as they have. We know without a doubt that this is what is best for everyone: us, his family, and most importantly, Michael. We truly believe that everything happens for a reason. Those reasons may not always be clear, but for now we plan to sit back and see where our journey takes us from here.

Love and peace, from our family to yours.