Have you reach the stage in your mom life when the babies you gave birth to no longer need your attention 24/7? I know for some moms that’s a moment of joy, but for me it was a very hard reality I wasn’t ready to accept. I absolutely love being a mom and feel that in all my years it’s the greatest accomplishment I’ve ever achieved. I love being there for them, yet before I was ready they became more and more independent and less and less wanting of their mama.
I always planned for a big family. Growing up I was 1 of 5 and it was my hopes to have a big family as well. When my third son was born the doctor told me my uterus wouldn’t be strong enough to safely carry another child to term without loss of the child and/or the mother. At first this devastated me. My hopes for a girl, my dreams of having a BIG family, crushed.
Don’t get me wrong, I love being a BOYMOM
Now don’t take this the wrong way, I love having 3 boys….. and believe me my heart is so full at times it’s unbelievable. There really is no greater love than the love from your sons. My life is amazing and I loved being a “boymom”, I just always felt like there was something more for our family. I just couldn’t accept that I was done having kids. I don’t know if it was because I wasn’t the one who made the decision and it frustrated me to “prove” the doctors wrong, but I’ve always wanted to try again.
Throughout the years I would continually bring up the option of having another baby, but it was swept under the rug and forgotten about until the baby fever struck again and it soon became a cycle of me wanting another baby and the hubby saying no…
So came a new plan, a plan to safely have a new addition without risk to the baby or me…… adoption…I researched and researched and talked to lots of families that had done it and looked into the process and quit. It all seemed so hard. So much paperwork. What if we weren’t accepted? Did I want to start all over when my boys were so independent. So I put it on the back burner yet again.
Thanks to social media
Then one day as I was scrolling social media I saw a friend from high school announcing that she was adopting a little girl so a message to her sent me into the world of foster care. I got the name of her girl and instantly sent her an email to get more information.
Fostering kids, yes that would be perfect. We have a good home, we have raised our boys well and if we can provide love and support to kids when they needed it the most. I called Kevin filled with excitement to begin this journey into becoming licensed foster parents. That was in April of 2017.
Let the process begin
There were classes, training and lots and lots of paperwork, home studies and home visits. Making sure the boys were okay with it, it was not an easy process and it would put us on a roller-coaster that made us question the idea of even going along with it, but we knew we had to at least give it a try.
When we started the process we had said that we wanted ages 2-6, but with our boys being 10-15 it was like starting over again and we weren’t sure if that’s what we wanted to do either. As the process continued we heard more and more about the need for foster families willing to take in older kids. So began the discussion on what ages would work best for us and the boys. We started this journey to add a little girl to our family, but as we proceeded forward it became more about helping any kids along the way.
So before we submitted our application we decided to become licensed for ages 8-17! Knowing that this could be a little more challenging we could only hope that we could handle what we were given and be able to have a positive impact on a child’s life during a difficult time in theirs.
Worth the wait
And after almost 2 years of paperwork and making it happen, we are excited to announce that we have had a child placed in our care and have since been learning the ins and outs of raising a teenage GIRL!!
