It’s funny how throughout the years all of the plans you’ve dreamed for your life change. I remember the first date Will and I went on. Even though we had been friends for years, I was so nervous! But after a few hours, we eased into the idea of turning our friendship into something more and suddenly it made so much sense. I clearly remember sharing a pizza and staying up for hours talking about all of these real life dreams and goals we had never shared before. Dreams of homeschooling our houseful of kids, of traveling to share the gospel, and of adoption. After a few months of marriage God laid on our heart the desire to become foster parents. Even though we hadn’t been married long, we were blessed with a great home to open up to kids who needed one. We told our worker that we had no intentions of adoption; our goal was to show love and give a safe place to kids who needed that before going back to their parents. We hoped they would see the love of Christ through us and take it back to share with their parents. We also thought we would have one or two children for a few months and then take breaks in between to spend time together and travel the world. My, how our plans fall short.
Since starting this journey we have had two of the most wonderful girls in our home. One was so special, but we knew this wasn’t her permanent home. After spending a few months pouring love onto her, we watched her go to her adoptive home. What a joy it has been to get to talk to her and pray for her and see her fall into place with a family who prayed for a daughter for years!
Our other foster love has been quite a handful, but she also brings us so much joy! She is definitely a mama’s girl, and I cannot imagine having more love in my heart for anyone else. We have watched her grow SO much this year. From learning to write her name, to learning how to pray, to learning how to express her emotions that she has had to hold in for so long, it has been quite the journey. She is so beautiful and oh how I wish I could share the hundreds of pictures I have taken of our family! While we initially thought this would be a temporary ministry in our lives before starting our family, we cannot imagine our family without this little firecracker!
I decided to share this part of our journey on the blog for two reasons. For one, even though the verse is over-used and not always in the right context, I believe in Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.” Wherever you are in your life, trust in that promise and cling to him. He has plans so much better than we can imagine! I also wanted to share this because I believe in the power of prayer. Please join us in prayer for our little one, because we so long for her to be apart of our family forever. Please pray that we will be able to provide permanency for our girl!
