Please Pray for our Paperwork!

(sometimes I just can't help a good alliteration)

As we near pretty close to the start of a dream, we figured we should officially let the cat out of the bag. I think there's already a few paws sticking out of the bag as we have not been super tight-lipped about our journey thus far, nor shy in asking for prayers and support from those closest to us. But a few months ago we (officially) started down a path that will forever change our family and our lives, and we are pretty excited about sharing it with everyone.

We have decided to pursue becoming foster parents. It is big and probably crazy, but God has been flinging the doors wide open for us to start and continue walking down this path. We have been blessed by family and a church community that has continuously lifted us up as we seek out each step of our submission to God's big plan for foster care in our lives. 

If you want the quick and simple info, this section is for you. We decided to move forward with foster care this summer in mid-June. We took our certification classes in August and have completed mountains of paperwork over the past few months. We went through 3 home-studies as well. We are on track to be certified in October. We have told our agency that we prefer to foster a child that is under age 2. Agencies typically have knowledge of children coming into foster care a few hours before they are placed in a home (if you missed that, it said HOURS), so we won't know gender or exact age/size until literally the day they come to live in our house. Our agency doesn't pick kids for families, it picks families for kids. 

Things you can be praying for:

-Our Paperwork: we submitted background/record checks to 3 different states (yay! for 3 moves in 2 years on my part), so there is a lot of stuff that is currently being processed by many different hands. We would love prayers for things to go smoothly and quickly with our record checks, and that nothing gets lost along the way. We also have answered countless questionnaires and assessments that will all be assessed during our certification process. 

-Our patience (well Shannon's): we are anxious to have a little one in our home for the first time and really trying to lean into the wisdom of God's timing but that is easier said than done! 

-Our family and community: we are so thankful for our people in Charlottesville and our amazing families. They are seriously the best. We know that they will be the hands and feet of Jesus to us when we become a family of three humans and a dog, and we just want them to be lifted up in prayer as they love on us! 

-Our future foster kiddo(s) and his/her family(families): Whatever the situation that will cause us all to join paths, please pray for us to have compassion, love, servitude, and grace for our foster kiddo's family. Foster care is not an us vs them situation and we pray hard that we can all form a team of love for this little one. 

If you want more details, feel free to keep reading! Written by Shannon.

If you had told me a year ago we would be deep in the process of becoming foster parents, I would have told you that was crazy. It wasn't that I thought foster care was crazy or being a foster parent was crazy. In fact I have wanted to be a foster parent for a number of years. It was something on my mind every time I thought about family and children. I went to a church in college that really shaped my heart for foster care and adoption. When Preston and I dated and got engaged, it was something we talked about, but not very decidedly. After working for a number of months at our local hospital in Charlottesville, I felt my heart breaking for the need for foster families here and now in our city. It seemed like at least once a week there was a little one in need of a home, and each time it broke my heart to not take them home myself. After listening to me talk and probably sob for months, Preston finally took some time to pray about foster care and whether he felt God was calling us to foster care now. A sweet friend of mine has this saying, "God never calls just one spouse," and it is such a true statement. Foster care is something that requires a team effort in a household of two parents, and I knew that I had to wait on Preston's heart and God's timing with calling Preston into this mission as well before we could move forward. It took some time, but God is always on time.

I have this sticky note on the inside cover of my planner with all the dates on our timeline of foster care. On June 18th I submitted an online interest form with our agency, with Preston's permission. We had an email response back the next day and I also had a phone conversation where I scheduled an info session with a caseworker. Our info session was on June 25th and honestly, we got interviewed more than anything during that info session. We also went home with two large stacks of paperwork. We did our training classes on the Saturdays of August, 7 hours of training each day. Our first home study was August 20th, our second studies were individual meetings on September 6th and 12th, and our third home-study was on September 24th. We submitted our background checks for Virginia on September 21st, and our checks for Georgia and my check for North Carolina on September 24th. These background checks should only take a few weeks to be returned to our agency and allow them to proceed with our certification. When they come back, our agency will have a committee meeting and review all the information they have collected on us and decide on our certification. Like I said before, we are looking at becoming certified in October, but it could be later depending on how long the record checks take. Our agency also only holds this certification committee meetings once a month, so that could affect our timeline as well, since our record checks have to be returned before this meeting.

Chick-Fil-A lunch date after paperwork and fingerprints  

There are some days where I feel like this process has taken so long, and other days where I am overwhelmed at how fast it has gone and how close we feel to being certified. At our last home visit, our timeline was moved up from becoming certified in November to October, and I could instantly feel my stress rising. I instantly started going through my mental to-do list and the list of things that we still need went through in my head the number of things I still felt like we "needed", the to-do list, the parts of this post I still had to write, etc. But my excitement also rose. Our nursery is on the first floor and there are so many times that I walk past that room, see the crib, and wonder what it will feel like to have a little one sleeping in there. I know that things will all happen according to God's timing and there is reassurance in that. The child that is meant to be in our home needs paperwork and proceedings to take the time they are going to take. 

Our first donations and
hand-me downs. Thank you
Stiners!

So far, we have quite a few baby essentials, with lots of hand-me-downs from friends on the way. We are so grateful for the help on stocking up on clothes of every size because I am not fond of the idea of running out to Target on the day of a placement. I think we will all be overwhelmed enough, even if Target is my happy place! Our sweet community of friends here in Charlottesville was so quick with their generosity and it won't be long before our basement fills up!

We are very excited to become foster parents and for a little one to arrive on our doorstep very soon (and we quite possibly will see him/her for the first time on our front porch). Sometimes I struggle to fall asleep at night just thinking about what life will be like with a little one in the house, although I probably should get the sleep now while I can. And while the excitement is great and we are loving setting up a nursery, we have to also wrestle with the reality of the other side of all of this. Foster care is a part of some of the most broken places in our world. As excited as we are, we also know that the need for foster care means that there is so much suffering and pain in our community. Foster care is not about "bad" biological parents or biological parents that don't love their kids enough. In fact, I believe the majority of parents with children in the foster care system love their children very deeply. Foster care is not about saving kids and putting them in perfect homes. Preston and I are not Jesus. We are not Superman and Wonder Woman, although those would be fun Halloween costumes. We are all in need of saving and being adopted into God's family. We are in no way going to perfect foster parents without any flaw or need for grace. This is not about thinking that we can do it "better" than the biological parents or anything like that. Judgments like that have no place in this and don't serve anyone. For Preston and I, this is about stepping into where God has called us and saying, "if You love them, if You gave your everything for them, so will I".

And of course, a picture of Sammy because she was rather left out of this post.
She is excited for another snuggle buddy in the house and has been floating a rumor we might be
taking more family walks soon.