Re-writing our Journey

This journey to become parents has been one of the best journeys we (Shane and I) have embarked on.  We have been through so much that it could either have torn us apart, or have brought us closer together.

I am so glad God has brought us closer to Him, and to each other.  We never knew we could have hope again, truly feel alive again and happy.  We told each other when we first found out we were pregnant with Lamar, that we would never lose faith in the Lord, or each other.  We vowed to stay true to each other, and share ourselves deeper than ever before.  We made a pact to each other to always be honest about our feelings/struggles we were going through.  Little did we know, God would test our strength, love, and dedication once again when we gave us Rochelle.  Rochelle taught us so much throughout her short 2 months here with us, and really showed us that God can put us through the worst circumstances of our life, and with Him, we can come out of them stronger, dedicated, and more open to different challenges and changes in our lives.  Brielle has taught us so much, in just having her here with us each and every day, and just amazed by how smart she is, and how much she understands at such a young age!  We love being her parents!

This month, we decided to start a new, different journey.  We believe God is putting it in our hearts and our mind now to foster/adopt a precious child in need.  I have always known I have felt drawn to supporting other adoptive mamas in their journey to becoming adoptive parents by supporting there shops such as here and here, but I never knew I would be one of the mamas asking for prayers and support as we embark on the actual journey.

We have prayed over this for a while now, and we truly believe that if God is going to put this in our heart, He will get us through it.  It’s a long, hard process to become certified foster/adoptive parents, but we are definitely ready to embark on this wild ride.

So far, we have only been to one orientation, and had to fill out our “initial” application to the state, completed our background checks, had our wellness exams from our doctors stating that we would be “fit parents” to foster/adopt, taken our TB tests(Brielle still needs hers), filled out 40+ pages of paperwork, and had our first HOME VISIT(that’s another post in and of itself), and while it may seem like we have done a lot, there is still so much to do and we start our 2 week classes this Monday (Feb 1st).

We still need:

-our FBI/fingerprinting (scheduled for next week)

-First aid classes (since apparently we both only have our CPR card–scheduled for next week)

-Brielle’s Tb test

-My parents need to fill out background checks(done Monday)

-To put up a barrier around our “body of water” (not a pool) in our front yard

-To do more gravel work in the backyard

-To get our Environmental health inspection/fire inspection completed

-To get copies of shane and Brielle’s birth certificate (that will be done monday)

And probably a whole lot more that I cannot seem to think of right at this very moment!

Please give us ANY advice if you have been through this journey, or just starting the journey as we are! We would greatly appreciate it! 🙂