Fostering Friday: The Beginning.....

Welcome to Fostering Fridays! Our hope is that you will be able to get a taste of what it's like to foster by reading our experiences and thoughts!

I found this post on an old blog and thought I would share it today as it talks about the beginning of our fostering journey, almost nine years ago. 

When we started, we never knew where it would take us, but God did!

Enjoy the first post I wrote about our first foster son who we also had the 

priviledge of adopting...

Time to update everyone on our lives! 

The short story....someone that we have known for several years asked us if we would foster their son, possibly permanently. A little baby boy. He is almost nine months old.
After alot of prayer, we consented. This was several months ago. Sorry to keep everyone in the dark so long, we were not sure what was going to happen. We were letting the Lord open and shut doors, as He saw fit. It's been a month or two of a process, but now we are almost done with foster classes and have been approved to do respite care for him. We have worked out a schedule with his current foster mom that we take him several days a week to get some bonding time in. We have all fallen in love with him already! We don't know what the future holds, we are just taking it a step at a time and enjoying the time for now that we have a little man in the house! It is fun!

One thing that is very important in this whole thing is that we have been making this decision as a family. Normally, we as parents, set the rules and that's that. However, we realized weeks ago that this was something that involved our whole family and thus their feelings and opinions needed to be taken into consideration. We don't want our kids to grow up resenting their parents and/or the foster child because they felt pushed aside or that their feelings were not high priority. Something that has been stressed over and over again in these classes is that your family comes first.

He does have a medical issue, but nothing that we can't handle with God's help. It is a issue that the doctor feels he will possibly outgrow. He is a little behind developmentally. Partially because of his condition, partially because he has been left in the crib or bouncy sit. He has not had stimulation like a baby normally would. So we have been having fun watching him explore and grow! He has passed several milestones already in a short amount of time. Simply by playing!

Anyway, wanted to let everyone know what was going on since we have had many questions. Thought you would want the facts and not have to guess at it!

We covet your prayers as we go through this chapter in our lives. Whether this little boy is with us simply for a season or for a long time, we want to impact his life in a positive way for Christ!

God Bless

It is so interesting to read back over this post now...nines years later and knowing all we went through with Tony. The hours and hours of painful physical therapy....the different caseworkers that were in and out of our lives...the different schools we had to take him to...the testing...diagnosis'......so much...and yet....here we are, almost nine years later with a wonderful son. A son that despite his disabilities enjoys life deeply and makes our days lively!

If you have questions about fostering, feel free to email me or comment on this blog!


Till next time...

Have a blessed day and embrace the craziness in your life!


Heidi