Update on the Adoption & Foster Care Process

I just wanted to write a quick blog about the adoption and foster care process Carless and I were going through. As some of you may remember Carless and I went through foster care classes through MBCH and finished some time in the Spring. We began the process in hopes to adopt a certain girl who we knew was already in foster care and at the time there was a good chance she would be adopted out. Well, the main goal for fostering is to reunite with the bioparents. It looks like that will be the case with this little girl we were hoping to get. It is all in God's hands. I still don't know the outcome. We were asked at one point to become the foster parents of this little girl, regardless of whether we would end up adopting her or just fostering her. It was something we struggled with. When we started this process, #1 we were not expecting another baby and #2 it looked like she would be adopted out. Now the tables have turned and I again learned we are not the ones in control, that there is a better plan out there for all of us. Her bio-parents have been doing what they need to get her back and we have a healthy little girl of our own on the way. I was thankful that we didn't have to make the decision to foster her or not. I felt like getting her around the same time as Carlee's due date would be too much on me and not fair to either one of them.
As far as the foster care license goes, Carless and I have put that on hold. If we were certified we would be getting calls and have to turn the down. Right now we are trying to focus on Carlee, getting ready for her arrival. After she comes and we decide it is the right thing to do, then we might go ahead and finish our certification so that we can do respite care. Respite care is basically baby sitting for foster parents. That may be something we can handle along with an infant. We will still need to pray about that. The little girl we wanted to adopt, whom I referred to as "A" is doing good with her current foster family and is spending lots of time and bonding with her bio-mom.

Adoption

So, a lot has happened since that day in February 2007. We continued on with the pregnancy. Took many pictures of my growing belly. We finally decided to let Dr. Burk induce me because he said it didn't look like I would go anytime soon and I was officially at 40 weeks. I didn't want to induce, I didn't want to let go. We arrived in the hospital June 26 and I gave birth to Caelyn Nicolette at 8:04 am on June 27th. She was breech, butt first. Her heart stopped beating in the birth canal. We took many pictures of our beautiful baby girl, dressed her, loved her, held her, and eventually let her go. It was a hard day, the days to come were hard too, but we made it through. Carless and I decided to try again, that is when we found ourselves pregnant with our little Bella girl. She was due April 3, 2009. We lost her on September 23, 2007 at 12 weeks.
Shortly after the misscarriage my husband and I decided to look into adoption through the foster care system.
My job allows me to meet many families, one of those families is a foster care family. There is a little girl who is in this home whom I have come to love. She is very special and if she did get adopted out, I wanted to have a chance at it. So, after lots of prayers and research, we are going through the Missouri Baptist Children's Home foster care training as we speak. We actually have one my week left, plus lots of paper work. Now, will we actually get to adopt this little girl? I don't know, but it is worth the risk. She deserves the very best and I hope to give that to her. She is a sweet little girl with big blue eyes, petite little body, brown hair, and light skin. She is only 16 months old and has been in foster care since she was 7 months old. We can't wait to see what God has in store for us.