Our Busy Wait to Adopt from Foster Care

Posted by ForeverMommy to Fostering Love 1 year ago | 4 Comments | Post a reply

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My husband and I began our journey to adoption more than five years ago. What started as casual conversations about growing our family turned into researching options for becoming adoptive parents and then, eventually, taking the steps necessary to adopt through our state's foster care system. We've had an approved homestudy for almost four years now, but we're still waiting to be matched for adoption. Adoption has been a long, slow process for us. Even though it can be frustrating at times, we believe that when the right match does come, we'll feel in our hearts that he, she, or they were worth the wait.

Of course, a lot changes in five years. Our initial family plan only included adoption. My husband and I had decided that we don't need to pass on our DNA in order to be happy parents. However, we now have a two-year-old biological daughter and a seven-month-old biological son. And for two years now, my husband and I have opened our home and our hearts to children who are currently in our state's system. Since we've been licensed as foster parents, we have cared for eight different children. We currently have two foster children living in our home, a brother and sister who are biological half siblings.

With our daughter, son, and two foster children, right now we have four kids under age three in our house! Yes, our house is like a circus. Babies everywhere, case managers and guardians ad litem visiting to check up on the foster kids, visitations with birth family, and endless phone calls to doctors, therapists, and extended family members.

Our family doesn't look like most families do. And the composition of our family can (and does) change at the drop of a hat. But that's what being a foster parent who is waiting to adopt is all about. It's a different kind of labor of love than being pregnant and delivering a biological child, but, believe me, it's no less work.

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