Tag: children

Attachment 101 – Part 3

In my last two posts in this series I introduced the attachment theory and explained how that affects children who have been adopted.  We discussed how to step into your child’s life and take control of their world confidently so that they can attach to you and trust you as their new caregiver.  I explained that children who have experienced trauma in their lives need a lifestyle that is highly structured and highly nurtured.  Taking control and developing boundaries focuses on the need for structure, so today I want to focus on nurturing.

When most people think about adoption, nurture is the picture that fills their mind.  They imagine holding their child, hugging and kissing their child, laughing, playing together and smiling.  They think about all the things they will do together, the sweet little rituals they’ll establish at bedtime and the millions of ways they will try to help their child forget all the grief, fear and loss of their past.

Before your child comes home, you will not be able to truly imagine that reality will set in.  You will not be able to prepare for those days when all you want is to be left alone.  You will not be able to comprehend the strength it will take some days just to reach out and give those hugs, kisses or gentle pats.

The bottom line is that no family is happy all the time, and children working through difficult feelings rarely display those emotions in cute, loveable ways.  It is not easy to be gentle and kind in the face of defiance.  It is not easy to stay energetic and positive when your children are testing every limit they find.  It is not easy to create a peaceful atmosphere with a screaming child.  You will get tired of being followed all over the place.  You will grow weary of a child’s tears, missing the loved one you can never be.  You will crave just one night of solid sleep.  Then you will feel incredible guilt as you think about all they’ve been through.

You will be a parent, not a revered saviour.

Realizing this is a bit of a let down; we all love to feel like heroes.  But it’s also exciting when you realize you have really become a normal family, complete with all the stresses and chaos.

Nurturing consists of those tangible ways we express to a child that he is adored, important and irreplaceable.  It’s caring, warm gestures that go above and beyond, but include, basic survival needs.  Nurturing is essential for attachment.

Children who have grown up in dysfunctional, chaotic environments are often starved for nurture.  However, they will not always respond the way you’d think.  It can be more difficult than imagined to nurture your child.

Touch is one of the most obvious and powerful communicators of love, and obviously important when nurturing your child.  Hugs, kisses, back rubs, holding hands, wrestling and piggy back rides are all great ways to connect with your child physically.  For those children whose love language is physical touch this will be even more important.  In some types of attachment therapy “holding” is considered it’s own exercise.  Some children will take awhile to feel comfortable enough to relax in your arms or ask for hugs or kisses.  Others will be all over you within hours or days.  It may be more uncomfortable than you think having that child who wants to touch you all the time.  Many children struggle to figure out appropriate social boundaries.  They may hug and hold hands with any adult they meet.  They may want to touch your face or body in ways that would be totally appropriate for a baby or toddler but not quite as cute in an older child.  It can be hard to offer hugs and kisses without limit, retain enough boundaries to keep yourself from feeling claustrophobic and teach your child appropriate social boundaries.  It is especially difficult with a child who has been sexualized by adults in their life.  Beware of any sort of touching that the child is uncomfortable with and follow their lead.  If you see signs of provocative or overly sexualized behaviours, be sure to clearly direct your child away from those behaviours.  The goal is to nurture your child, not to lure them back into unhealthy habits.

I remember the first day I met my daughters.  At 7 and 5, they were anxious little whirlwinds of activity.  I wanted so much to be able to just reach out and hold them…but I was a stranger.  While one of them soon snuggled in close under my arm, the other one circled me warily, staying just out of reach.  Now she falls asleep in my arms, but then she needed me to follow her from room to room, looking at everything she pointed out and then letting her retreat again for a while.  The most I got was to let my fingers slide over her silky hair for a second.  My husband, however, won her over by offering piggy back rides 🙂

Food is another basic way to nurture a child.  We all need food and water to survive, but some children have not always had plenty of food or water.  They may remember times when their tummies ached with hunger, or they may cope with anxiety by grossly overeating.  Be sensitive to this and try to make sure you take advantage of the opportunity to give them that physical satisfaction food brings, while establishing healthy eating patterns.  Simply doing the little things like getting a drink of water for them, pulling something from the fridge, scooping food onto their plate or packing a plentiful and appealing lunch can help children feel nurtured and cared for.  For children who hoard or steal food, packing a special snack basket or stocking a cupboard just for them helps reinforce the message that food is readily available when needed.  This helps them realize they are not in danger of being without enough food as they’ve been in the past.  For children who may have missed early infant nurturing, spoon feeding or even bottle feeding is a bonding activity that will reinforce tons of positive messages.

Like many little children, my littlest A loves to snack!  She adores junk food and candy and begs for food anytime she’s bored or slightly hungry.  While this is very frustrating, I’ve tried to turn it around by getting ahead of her and surprising her.  When she’s busy with something else I’ll suddenly interrupt her and tell her it’s snack time!  She’s always delighted to realize she didn’t even need to ask and it’s way more fun for me!  I also like to let the girls lick off spatula’s, have a few chocolate chips when I’m baking cookies or pick out a special snack to go in their lunch at the store.  My grocery bill has definitely went up since I started packing creative, healthy and appealing lunches but it’s a way to send my nurturing along to school with them.

Even though your child may be an independent 8, 10 or even 16 year old doesn’t mean you should never do anything for them they can do themselves.  While promoting attachment you are not focusing on independence.  We all love to be treated with care.  Go out of your way to care for your child.  Pack their lunch, start the bath water for them, help a younger child dress, brush their hair, trim their nails, put their pajamas in the dryer to warm them up while they’re in the bath tub.

Simply having fun and spending time together is a big part of nurturing your child.  Laugh.  Smile.  Snuggle on the couch and watch a movie.  Make eye contact and pay attention when your child is speaking to you.  Make yourself and your home a “safe haven” your child can come back to no matter how he or she is feeling!  Reinforce the message that we all have feelings and they are not wrong in and of themselves, it is what we do with them that matters.

Most of us know how to nurture, it’s just difficult to do it when we’re feeling tired, worn out or frustrated.

Last week I had a bad week.  One of my daughters was sick and I was just not in the mood!  She is a detail person and struggles with anxiety in the best of times, so feeling a little off turned her into a real bear!  The tiny bump on her lip and the fever she developed had equal significance, along with a possibly occurring rash and itchy spot on her left leg!  She woke up multiple nights in a row and knocked on my door in tears, panicking at the thought of not sleeping which then of course kept her from sleeping for long afterwards.  She was defiant and mean at school, tired and grumpy at home.  I am telling you this to show you that even though I know all about nurturing in my head, I fail miserably on a regular basis!  Last week I had the perfect opportunity to show my daughter that I cared about her and would go out of my way to nurse her poor tired little body.  Instead, I was grumpy, irritable and insensitive.  I knew I was failing miserably and instead of choosing to let this motivate me I let my mind take me on a huge guilt trip instead.  After everything this little girl has been through, how could you treat her with such a lack of compassion?!  What a horrible mother!

See, just because my daughters have not been born to me by birth and have trauma in their past does not mean I always find it easy to be gentle and kind.  I am no superhero!

So I hope all you moms out there are encouraged to nurture your little, middle sized or big kids today.  Go the extra mile to make them feel important.  Remember the golden rule.  Take every opportunity to love.  They’re worth it!

Attachment & Adoption

One of the big themes being discussed in adoption today is attachment and trauma.

At the core, these are the biggest issues facing adoptive parents and kids.  It is at the heart of all of our desires for ourselves and our children.  It is the biggest difference setting us apart from biologically created families.  So what is this thing called attachment?

Let me paint a picture for you.

Think about that sweet little baby you know who is less than six months old, living in a loving, functional family.  He has entered this big wide world and yet he is so dependent on another’s care.  That voice he heard while in his mother’s womb murmurs in his ear, soothing him when his tiny face scrunches, red and screaming.  When he cries, he is quickly picked up and held close to that warm body that feels so familiar.  Mother has an intuitive sense of baby’s needs, even when she’s exhausted from lack of sleep.  When he’s hungry, he is held close in her arms and fed warm milk from a bottle or breast, often gazing up into his mother’s face as he drinks.  Rarely do her hands feel rough, hurried or anxious as she handles his fragile body.  He is gently bathed regularly in soothing warm water.  Mother is right there beside him washing his little body with a soft cloth and talking to him.  She may even set up a tiny heater in the room for when he comes out of the water, wet and cold.  He gets wrapped in a warm towel and massaged with lotion from head to toe.  Sometimes he is held while he sleeps, his mother simply enjoying the weight of his body, the smell of his skin and his tiny features relaxed in sleep.  Everyone delights in cuddling him, examining every little expression and watching his body grow.  His first cooing noises are rewarded with smiles and delighted attention from the adults who adore him.

I don’t mean to put a rosy glow on all this.  I know there are long days, short nights, hours of screaming and aching breasts for some.  But that mother you know, even when she feels overwhelmed and exhausted, will probably be making sure her baby’s needs are met.  He will still get all that tender care, protection and physical presence he needs to assure him someone in this big, wide world is taking care of him and thinks he’s the most important little person on the planet.

The very first thing baby will learn is that he can trust his mother to meet his needs; that his cries will be met with response.

When he is hungry, she will rush to get him food.  When his bottom is red and sore she will soothe it with cream.  If he cries for hours, she will worry, wondering what is wrong.  Above all else she will protect him with her very life.  She will go to extra measures to make sure the infant seat is properly installed and latched.  She will think twice when she gets behind the wheel those first few times.  She will always know where he is and what he’s doing, and will take care to be sure he’s safe.  As he grows, sits, rolls over, crawls and stands she will make sure his environment is safe.  She will feel a flutter of panic in her chest when he bumps his head, falls down the stairs or face plants into the ceramic tile floor.  Baby quickly becomes attached to his mother because he knows she is the one he can rely on.  Hers are the arms that will soothe in that familiar way.  Hers is the face that gazes at him, smiles at him, talks to him and kisses his chubby cheeks.  Through that first year of life, mother and baby are almost one.  They spend almost every waking minute together or in very near proximity.

This is the way God intended families to be built.

He knew we would need that assurance that the world can be a safe, happy place and that we are precious in someone’s eyes.  On that foundation we grow into children that are ready to learn, explore and create.  Our need for love and security has been met, and continues to be met.  Every event following those first basic patterns of care as an infant develop in us an ability to trust another human.  We will need this to survive.  We will need this for our brains to function properly.

So what about trauma?

What is trauma and why does it matter?

Do you think it would make a difference if one day baby cried and cried for hours, but nobody ever came?  No warm bottle to ease the ache in his empty tummy.  No gentle arms to soothe his distressed cries.  No gentle voice murmuring words of comfort in reassuring tones.  No gentle bath times…instead his skin turns crusty and dry.  His bottom soon gets red and sore to the point of blisters that rub open and bleed, while his urine and stool stain his clothing for hours.  Maybe someone comes…sometimes…but the arms may or may not be gentle.  They may rock and soothe one day but hit and jostle roughly the next.  Faces come and go, but no consistent caregiver seems to feel responsible for baby.  For days, baby may cry until his throat is sore and his voice raspy…but eventually he will stop.  He has learned crying does not get him anything.  He will lie silently staring, listening to the sounds of his unpredictable environment.  Maybe yelling, maybe the thumping beat of music much too loud for baby’s ears, maybe the drone of the television or radio…and sometimes simply nothing.

Or maybe baby is cared for tenderly for the first 6 months, year or even 2 years…and then one day that person is gone.  In a new, strange environment he is alone and fearful.  The faces are unfamiliar, the smells and routines are all wrong.  Instead of stories and soft blankets at bedtime in his familiar room, with the night light glowing in the corner, it is dark and cool and just so different.  The blanket is scratchy instead of soft.  The room is large and open instead of small and cozy.  There are no stories, only a quick kiss and the door closing while unfamiliar lullabies play.  He has fun in the large back yard with the swing set and pool, but he misses the familiarity of that one person who held his world together.  This person doesn’t know when he’s hungry, tired or overwhelmed and he has no idea what she is going to do next.

She is a stranger.

Over the next few months, things slowly start to fall into place.  He learns new routines, new habits, new ways of getting attention and affection.  Just as he’s starting to trust that this person can fill the void…she disappears.  Suddenly he is in a new place again.  How could she leave him?  Once again, he must get used to something different.  Everyone seems happy and excited, but he is scared.  Who will take care of him now?

Will they leave too?

When?

Where?

How?

Is this what life is like?

After 3 or 4 moves, he will learn that there is only one person he can really depend on, and that is himself.  He is responsible to meet his own needs.  Relying on other people is simply too painful.  Eventually, they will leave and he must be able to cope on his own.  Though he may not be aware of this thought, his brain is establishing these patterns and they come with a great cost.

We know in our hearts that this does make a difference.  God never intended children to fend for themselves.  They are vulnerable.  They are needy.  Parents are commanded in scripture to love, teach and provide for their children’s needs as best they can.  God illustrates himself as a loving Father to us, giving us the image of a caring, gentle, strong protector.  We struggle as mothers, as fathers, to parent our children the way we know God desires.  We talk about unconditional love, sacrifice, wisdom and joy.  We desire the best, and we struggle to reach the ultimate.

Yet so many children are growing up without these fundamental needs being met.  They do not know who they can trust, and they are constantly on high alert.  Their brains operate in panic mode a majority of the time, constantly looking for signals that will warn them of pain, danger or loss.  Because they are so busy trying to survive, there is little brain power left to learn, explore or create like normally developing children.  There is tons of scientific research that supports this theory.

A child who has not formed healthy attachments starts to lag behind in all aspects of development.

We need love to learn and grow.

The more I learn the more I am in awe of the Creator God I love.  He did not create us to function as individuals.  We are designed to need each other.  In our families, in our churches, in our communities…we thrive on healthy, loving relationships with others.  All these relationships are built on trust.

The good news is that these missing connections CAN be formed later in life!

Our brains can learn to make those new connections…but it is so much harder than the original plan.  Instead of an infant starting with an empty slate, you are now trying to rewire or reteach the brain to ignore the survival skills it’s relied on for 3, 5, 10 or even 20 years.  It takes time, patience and unconditional love.  Trial and error.  And every child is different.

Does every child who has been adopted struggle with attachment issues?

No, though most do to some degree.

What does this look like?

The struggle, the rewiring and the success?

I’d like to explore this a little bit in the next few posts.  I am by no means an expert, but we’ve learned an incredible amount through seminars, workshops, friends, adoption professionals and most of all some very precious little kiddos in the past three years.  It’s been an intriguing journey, and has helped us be so much better prepared for the challenges we face today with our two daughters.  I am passionate about sharing with others the issues adoptive families face daily because I believe that awareness is the key to success.  The more people understand the root of the issues we face and develop skills and empathy, the better the outcome for my children and every other adoptive family.

There are millions of children waiting for families who will dare to love them despite their challenges.  Their are also millions of families who feel they are not equipped to care for these children.  I firmly believe that education about adoption and adoption issues could change the lives of many of these children and families.

Jesus did not turn away from the messiness of life.

The hurt,

the terror,

the overwhelming rage,

the grief as deep and dark as ink,

the injustice that leaves us broken.

In the middle of it all, He was there.

I pray for the courage to love even when the cost is unimaginably high.

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Philipians 4:13

When my daughters were younger we memorized a child-friendly version of the 23rd Psalm.  You cannot imagine what it did to my heart when I heard them during their play time reciting these lines of incredible comfort and love about their Heavenly Father.  This is taken from the Jesus Storybook Bible.

“God is my Shepherd

And I am his little lamb.

He feeds me

He guides me

He looks after me.

I have everything I need.

Inside, my heart is very quiet.

As quiet as lying still in soft green grass

In a meadow

By a little stream.

Even when I walk through

the dark, scary, lonely places

I won’t be afraid

Because my Shepherd knows where I am.

He is here with me

He keeps me safe

He rescues me

He makes me strong

And brave.

He is getting wonderful things ready for me

Especially for me

Everything I ever dreamed of!

He fills my heart so full of happiness

I can’t hold it all inside.

Wherever I go I know

God’s Never Stopping

Never Giving Up

Unbreaking

Always and Forever Love

Will go, too.”

AF

Backyard Adventures

So I wish I could post some more photos for you of some of this stuff but until our adoption is finalized I can’t legally do that.  So…you’ll just have to be satisfied with my descriptions 🙂

I love to see kids using their imaginations and playing outdoors.  It is so healthy for all of us and it’s the sort of activity they don’t get to enjoy as much during the school year.  Recently I feel like the girls have really found their groove with the long summer days and are coming up with all kinds of things to do!

As I mentioned briefly in my last post, my husband has been working on building a tree house the past week.  He was actually pretty stoked about this since he’s always wanted a good reason to build a tree house apparently!  🙂  The girls were so excited about this and loved helping him.  I cringed as they wielded hammers, winced as they helped him saw and covered my eyes when it was finally complete enough for them to clamber up there…WAY up there!  Don’t get me wrong, I love the idea…but spending the last few years providing daycare for other people’s kids and being a foster parent for the Children’s Aid Society has sharpened my ‘safety first’ instincts!  I tried not to let my nervous squeaks ruin their excitement and pushed away the jelly feeling in my stomach when I climbed up with them the first time.  Is it safe?  Barely.  But is it fun?  You bet it is!  This is why Akeisha and Alexa need a Daddy.  I encourage and applaud them when they are adventurous and brave…but I’m not as good at providing opportunities for them to practise those characteristics.

It really has been tons of fun, though, this tree house thing.  It can become a pirate ship, a secret clubhouse or a cool place to have lunch!  Yes, that was today.  Tuna sandwiches, carrots and apples are so much better when devoured with grimy little fingers as we gaze around at green, leafy walls.  Even the chipmunks, who have been feasting on peanuts right out of our hands, managed to crawl up there and try to steal a few crumbs!  It makes me feel like a child again…climbing trees, brushing the dirt off my sandwich, feeling rough wood on my feet and going out of the way to make each little moment extraordinary.  There’s even a trap door, which makes you feel like you’re entering a secret hideaway!  Akeisha tied a rope to a bucket so that they could transport all kinds of treasures up and down.  She also tried ‘fishing’ for chipmunks from her leafy hideaway which resulted in one clever little chipmunk getting quite the surprise when his peanut wouldn’t come free!

 

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There is also still a little fort in the bushes that gets some attention, a bear trap that was created ‘just in case’ and a new favourite hobby…picking apples from the wild apple trees beside our house!  Every now and then we still catch caterpillars and put them in our bug buckets…though they rarely get attention after that so they have a rather unfortunate end.  Akeisha is usually the ring leader of all these activities and the past few days working alongside Daddy she became enthralled with the idea of ‘working.’  So yesterday all day I was her boss and she drove to work in her workboat, just like Daddy.  She was so cute all dressed up in Daddy’s big work boots, a Rockscape Design hat and a big sweater that covered most of her body.  She took lunch breaks and even did a bunch of jobs for me as my ’employee.’  Hey, if she’s into working and having fun I’ve got all kinds of jobs that can be done! 🙂  After making the beds, doing dishes and sweeping the floor she was ready to go back to pretending to work like Daddy, not me!  Lol.

Our poor little doll babies who got such devoted attention a month ago have been rather neglected, but every now and then they still get a few cuddles, a walk to the park or a diaper change.  Crafts have been a big hobby lately and this mother has had to grin and bear all the glue, string, little paper pieces and wasted tape that goes with that!  Most of the crafts have been things for the fort or tree house.

I am so grateful for the little haven we have here up at the top of a quiet dead end street.  We have a perfect backyard for kids to be able to explore, play and create despite it’s small size.

So much to be thankful for.

Alongside all these backyard adventures I am just celebrating every little sign of attachment I see in our daughters.  Today Alexa, mimicking the words I’ve said to her so many times, told her doll “I’ll love you always and for ever NO MATTER WHAT!”  She also played shy and stuck right by my side the whole time a woman selling books dropped by this morning, which is a great improvement.  The last phone conversations we had with the girls foster parents were remarkably different than a few weeks ago.  Instead of the girls needing to know all about their former homes and what they were missing, they were able to excitedly share about the fun things that have been going on here!  We are hearing mostly Mommy and Daddy again, after a few weeks of reverting back to our names, and they are even able to have conversations about their new last names without feeling quite so threatened.  Alexa has a habit of coming up to me any random time and saying, “Mommy, I love you.”  No reason at all.  No particular emotion to provoke it.  Simply I love you 🙂  She loves when I call her my baby.  A favourite bonding activity is to be wrapped in a big towel after her bath and carried back to her room.

Daddy still gets greeted with huge shrieks of joy each and every evening…and he deserves every ounce of adoration the girls give him.  He’s amazing.  Day after day he comes home from work and pours a truckload of energy into the girls.  Alexa loves her snuggles from Daddy, climbing into his lap after supper just like I used to do with my Dad every night.  My favourite quote of hers was one Saturday morning as she crawled into bed to snuggle beside him.  “You’re my warm and fuzzy Daddy,” she said as she rubbed his whiskers affectionately. 🙂  She has been a Daddy’s girl since day #1 and there is just a bond there that I love to watch.

Akeisha likes to get quality time and attention, like helping him build the tree house or sitting on his lap chatting.  She got to stay up late a few nights just chatting with Daddy and it was so eye opening to hear her questions and comments.  They talked about everything from house fires to school to her day.  She was amazed to hear that Daddy would come back in the fire to find her if he knew she was still inside, and once again I was reminded how much we need to voice those things.  When trust is just being built, those things are not simply taken for granted as obvious facts like they were for me when I was a child.  They love to hear us say adamantly how much we would miss them if they left us and how we would follow them!  They’ve decided once they’re big enough to be moms themselves they will live next door to us in the house that is for sale so that they will not be far away, and talk about saving up their money for that.  🙂  Right now I am listening to them play house.  Akeisha is the mom and Alexa is the child.  Alexa has just been put on a ‘time-out’ by her sister and Akeisha is carefully explaining why exactly she is there and what will happen.  Wow.  Sponges.  It is incredible to hear your voice being parroted back at you.  The other day Akeisha said to me, “Mommy, I wish I would have been in your tummy.”  We’ve had this conversation a few times.  When I smiled, hugged her and said “Me too,” I could see her beautiful brown eyes glow.  We have so much yet to cover about the life they’ve already lived without us, but in those little moments we understand who we are.  We are a family.

I have no idea why God has allowed me to parent these girls.  I feel so unworthy some days.  But it really is the little things that matter so much.  It’s the way I speak, the way I go about my day and the things I place at the top of the list.  Through two pairs of young, searching eyes I get the chance to portray a tiny piece of what Jesus looks like.  When I stand before Him some day, I know what I am doing today is going to matter.  They are golden opportunities.  That can feel overwhelming, but I also know that it does not all depend on me.  God chooses to use me, but He doesn’t need me.  He will bring the increase.

AF

 

 

 

I want to be ALONE!

Ok.

So this is me being honest and letting you all know that even though we’re pretty excited about our new family of 4…we’re normal.  Not every day is rainbows and shimmer.

Right now I am hiding downstairs in my jammies while my husband builds a tree house with the girls and let me tell you I am just drinking in the quietness here!  Some days I am full of energy and happiness and amazement…and other days I’m just plain old tired.  Also…my personal bubble is nonexistent these days which sometimes makes this Mama Queen of the Grumps!  Wiry little arms hugging, pulling, yanking and poking at me all day long.  Affectionate?  Yes…but Mommy is not always in the mood for affection.  Mommy is not always in the mood for silly, nonsensical chatter and stinky morning breath in my face.  Mommy is not always in the mood for bony little bodies jumping on me.  Mommy is not always in the mood for whiny little voices following me all over the kitchen as I try to get everything done that needs to be done between 5 and 6pm.  Mommy is not always in the mood for markers all over the floor, glue on the table and macaroni bracelets in the bathroom sink.  Mommy is not always in the mood for little bodies climbing up on the countertops and sending a zillion cups crashing to the floor while clumsy hands search for that perfectly pink favourite.  Mommy is not always in the mood for an out of control garden hose spraying my basket of dry laundry.  Mommy is not always in the mood for little voices calling “Watch me!”

Sigh.

Yup.

Pretty normal.

My husband is awesome about this.  He helps chase away the “Mom guilties” that want to come in and just bash me to pieces when I just need to be ALONE!  The other night after the girls were in bed I went out for like 5 minutes to pick something up and I could’ve just laughed out loud!  I felt like a FREE WOMAN!  Of course when I got back 5 minutes later two little faces were peering out the window at me calling…”Mommy!  Where did you go?!”  Like it was the most insane thing ever that I would go somewhere without them!  After all, we are pretty much inseparable…and to bring some balance to this post…I am SO thankful that I am in the position where I am able to be a stay-at-home Mom to my daughters.  I truly am grateful for that, and would not change it for the world.

However…that doesn’t mean my patience level is any higher than yours and I just wanted you to know that it’s real life around here, too!  Bedtime is usually one of my favourite times of the day.  I love to be able to tuck them in, read stories, hear them pray and just feel connected at the end of the day.  But there are some days all I want is to give a quick kiss and then BE ALONE!  Days like this one can make me feel incredibly guilty, because I know there is a Mom somewhere who would love to be able to have just one more exasperating, annoying Monday!  Some days I am that Mom…there are two little faces etched forever on my memory that make me ache with loneliness some days.  I love my girls…but I’ve learned that nobody can be replaced.  Each new little person finds their own place in my heart…a place I didn’t even know existed until they came.  The one left empty will always be just that…empty…except for the memories.  So I understand we need to treasure every second.  Just writing that made me cry.  There is a little buzz cut that used to come lay softly on my cheek every single morning and make all kinds of happy, endearing noises…and every single morning I miss that little buzz cut.  There is a pair of vivid, joyful brown eyes that used to make me smile every single day as they danced to the sound of belly giggles…even on the worst days…and I miss those brown eyes every day.  I did not think it would hurt this bad for so long.  But I’m getting off topic.  The annoyance is already starting to fade!  Lol.  Count your blessings, right?

But I’m not supermom.

And some days I am just plain old selfish…or didn’t get enough sleep…or it’s that time of the month.  Some days I am overwhelmed by the intensity of life with two little girls who need to be loved so well.

Being a mother means you get to see the worst and best of yourself almost daily.  It’s really quite the rollercoaster.  I never knew how selfish I was until I got married.  Then I knew.  Two years later, I became a ‘mom’ for the first time and I learned my selfishness ran much deeper than I’d realized.  These little people in our lives teach us so much more than we could ever imagine we didn’t know!  I like to think, though, that with so much opportunity for messiness and absolute failure there is so much potential for growth!  Every moment I choose to force a smile instead of a scowl, every time I choose to soften my tone…I get a zillion opportunities every day to be like Jesus!  And if I fail…well…at least there are still many more chances to make it right.  And the little people we learn from?  They are so quick to bounce back with a smile and a hug.  They will forgive every time.  They will love you no matter what.  After the worst day, they will still want goodnight hugs and kisses.  After the fiercest tantrum they will smile and say I’m sorry before you’ve even sorted through your own mass of feelings.  That is beautiful.

I’d like to think it’s ok to fail sometimes.

I like to remind myself we all get grumpy every now and then.

This is where abundant grace comes in…for my children and for ME.

Akeisha and Alexa love to hear us say we will love them no matter what.  Always and forever.  Some days I need to hear that from my heavenly Father, too.  He will love me no matter what.  Always and forever.  It isn’t my acts of service or my moments of graciousness or my stunning successes that earn me His love.  He loves me simply because that is who He is.

Thank you, Father

Ps. On a lighter note, the girls have been playing pirates the past few days!  LOL  It’s hilarious!  “Arty AR AR” is apparently pirate lingo.  Outfits are complete with paper eye patches, stick swords in a fabric sheath and paper hats.  So adorable 🙂

 

Plan A Adoption

I have been trying to post this blog for weeks now, but I was having so much trouble trying to get it just right.

Trying to say it just the right way.

Because it matters SO much to me!

But I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to sum up everything stored in my heart about this issue, so I finally gave up and decided to just post it as it is.  Please forgive the errors or the places where I stumble all over someone’s toes.  I really don’t mean to!  Here goes nothing!

***

Despite my HUGE skepticism of ‘telling our story’, I do want to share with you a bit about how we ended up where we are in the world of adoption and foster care.  It’s been an adventure of faith and God has done incredible things for us along the way.  My husband and I are both passionate about adoption and foster care since it has played such a huge role in our lives and hearts, but ultimately it is a passion that has grown and matured over time through God’s Voice speaking to us through His Word, other people and lots of reading material 🙂

Just so we’re honest and have everything ‘on the table’, even though I love talking about adoption and foster care, I also dread these conversations.

Here’s why:

1) When you talk about adoption or foster care being apart of your family, many people get that look in their eyes where they mentally dissociate and go…”Wow, that’s not for me.”  Or they might say things like:

“That is so amazing!  That’s a very special calling.”  (I’m not that special, people.  I’m actually pretty normal and most of the kids out there waiting for homes aren’t waiting for special.  They’re waiting for something pretty normal.)

Or maybe, “So can’t you have kids of your own?”

And then there are the people that take a step back and say things like…

“CAS?  Yeah…I used to work for them.  Never again!  Did you hear about that girl in foster care who killed a little kid?  It was all over the news!”  (True story.  I stood there speechless at the sarcasm and malice laced in her tone.  Really?!  There are still people around who say things like this out loud?  Thank goodness I didn’t have any of my kids with me!  How do you respond to that well?)

2) I have no interest in my family…especially my kids…being the next big ‘news’ topic.  For us, this is not news.  This is our life.  It is important to me that my children’s story is treated with respect.  This means I do not like to share details about my children’s past, their family dysfunctions, or their personal difficulties…just as you don’t discuss your children’s painful, difficult moments with others.  This goes for adoptive and foster children.  It is not important that everyone know exactly how and why our children have come to us.  Sometimes people may need to know these or other details, but most of the time it is simply curiosity.  If caught between protecting and affirming my child or satisfying someone’s curiosity, my child will win every time!  I am hoping to learn to do that gracefully without offending others, but please help us by not asking inappropriate questions.

3) Pride.  Yes, pride.  It can make me feel good to tell you my story.  It can make me forget that it’s really not my story at all.  It can tempt me to take credit for decisions and events that were not orchestrated by me, but by my Heavenly Father.  He has planted all the love, all the joy and all the inspiration.  This is His work, not mine.  Every time I tell our story…I want to make sure that you go away knowing it is really God’s story.  It is Him alone that deserves any honour or glory that may come.  It is Him who will take care of all the questions and fears others may bring.  I don’t need to have all the answers because it’s about obedience, trust, and choosing to believe His voice above all else.

So many times I find myself standing there wondering how in the world I am supposed to respond or explain that I am not in this thing because I’m a saint.

I am not in this thing because I think all these kids are cute and cuddly and it gives me warm fuzzies.  (They’re not and it doesn’t…though we get a few of those moments, too.)

I am not in this thing because it’s easy.

I am not in this thing because my husband and I couldn’t have children biologically.

I am not in this thing because of ME!

Now, I understand that many people’s comments are not meant to be invasive or insensitive…and I need to work on extending as much grace as I expect when I fumble my way through a conversation about something I know nothing about!  Working on that.  However, it does give you a bit of a lonely, sick sort of feeling in your stomach when you walk away from a conversation and realize you completely failed to convey the passion, reality and importance of the topic you care about so deeply!  In our world, it is not just a conversation about a social issue.  It is personal.  We have faces and names that will be engraved on our hearts forever.  So please forgive us when we over react or respond negatively to an innocent question or comment.

So….

With all that between us, let me share our story 🙂

For us, adoption was always Plan A.

My husband and I have been married for 4 years.  As far as we know, we are able to have children biologically, and may or may not add to our family naturally in the future.  That is not our decision, but God’s.  Giving Him control of our dreams and desires surrounding our family is at the core of this journey, and an ongoing act of surrender.

I have been interested in foster care and adoption for as long as I can remember.  Being the passionate, idealistic dreamer that I am, the social issues of child abuse, neglect, poverty and addictions quickly captured my attention.  I also had people in my life whom I was able to observe who were foster and adoptive families, and from a very young age I decided that was what I wanted to do.  At this point my tender heart was simply yearning to swoop in and rescue these innocents, playing the grand heroin of the story.  It felt like a noble adventure.  One where happily ever after came quickly and everything was painted black and white through my naïve lens.

As I matured and learned more about the realities and challenges surrounding foster care and adoption, I realized it was not quite as simple as I had first thought.  I did, however, still feel very strongly that this was something I wanted to do.  In the next years I had experiences in my life that grew this passion with leaps and bounds.  Looking back, I can say confidently they were planned by my Heavenly Father, nudging me forward toward His goal.  I began a relationship with my husband, fell in love with many children and starting seeing the hoops I would need to jump through in order to reach my dream of fostering and adopting.  Thankfully, alongside the growing realization of the challenges, misconceptions and fears that were thrown at me from every angle came the steady, consistent, assuring Voice of God.

Kirby and I started talking about adoption and foster care about a month or two into our relationship.  At that point he had really never considered it at all, but was more than willing to listen patiently and open his heart to the possibility.  It is funny to think about this time because looking back I vaguely recall his hesitations and questions, but if you spoke to him now you would quickly realize he is a strong, passionate advocate for adoption and foster care.  I can hardly remember when it was just me, spouting out my feelings and passions and sobbing with the weight of my one big question.  If I didn’t do this…if God didn’t call me…who would go?  What would I do with the gigantic burden that pressed on my heart if God said no?  I knew God didn’t need ME…but I also didn’t see many people stepping up to the plate.  When I tried to talk to people about how I felt, I heard questions.  I heard fears.  I heard…it’s hard.  But I didn’t hear a lot of people saying…YES!  This is right!  This is good!  This is God’s heart!  I will go.

Despite what many people may think, the Bible is full of confirmations that God is interested in adoption and foster care.  God loves children, wants us to protect and care for orphans, and is very interested in us going the extra mile to serve others.  These are some passages that became very special to me as Kirby and I began wading through the hard questions about adoption and foster care.  I am amazed how already in the Old Testament, when God was primarily focused on His chosen people, Israel, He commanded them to love and care for those who were outside the protection of His family.

“A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation.  God setteth the solitary in families.” Psalm 68:5-6

“Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land.” Deuteronomy 15:11

“For the Lord your God is God of gods, and Lord lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward: he doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment.  Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.” Deuteronomy 10:17-19

“You, Lord, hear the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry, defending the fatherless and the oppressed, so that mere mortals will never again strike terror.” Psalm 10: 17-18

“Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed.  Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.” Psalm 82:3-4

 

Journeying into the gospels and seeing how Jesus treated children, we see a love so deep and tender.  I love the picture of Jesus’ physical body holding, smiling and loving the children who were brought to Him.  In a time and society where children were not valued as we are accustomed to today, it must have spoken powerfully to these little ones to be treated with such gentleness and joy.

“And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.” Matthew 18:5

“And they brought young children to Him, that He should touch them: and his disciples rebuked those that brought them.  But when Jesus saw it, He was much displeased, and said unto them, Let the little children come to me, and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of God…and He took them up in His arms, put His hands upon them, and blessed them.” Mark 10:13-16

 

Jesus also taught radical love for others and that has been the driving force behind our decision to pursue adoption and foster care.

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.” James 1:27

“For this is the message we have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another…But whoso hath this world’s goods, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion, how dwelleth the love of God in him?  My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.” 1 John 3: 11, 17

“Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry, and you gave me meat: I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink: I was a stranger, and you took me in: naked, and you clothed me…Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me.” Matthew 25: 34-40

“But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own donkey, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him…Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do likewise.” Luke 10:23-37

 

And last of all…each one of us who has been born again into the family of God has been adopted!  We, out of nothing we have done, have received a loving Father who has chosen to extend his grace to us and redeem us from the loneliness and darkness of sin.  He did not decide it was too hard, despite the fact that we would reject Him.  He did not decide it was too painful, even though He experienced very real, undeniable pain!  He did not decide we were not worth it, despite our sinfulness and utter desolation.  No.  He chose to love us, bring us into his family, and make us His children.  Ultimately, that is the picture we are duplicating as we bring children into the shelter, love and protection of our families through adoption and foster care.

“But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.” Galatians 4:4

 

In the earliest days, the primary hurdles were spiritual and emotional.  We needed to hear God’s Voice affirming we were on the right track.  We needed to sense His presence there beside us and know that He would complete the work He was beginning in our hearts.  We needed to get our families on board and know that we had their support, which sent them on their own journeys to discover God’s will.  This took a lot of time and prayer, and was not always easy.  There were days we felt very alone.  There were days we felt confused and frightened.  There were days we wanted to race ahead of God’s timing.  There were big questions to grapple.  Sometimes God gave us answers to those questions, and sometimes He simply urged us to obey Him and trust Him.  We still don’t have all the answers to those questions, but we are confident when the time comes…if the time comes…God will be faithful to provide us with the strength and grace we need.  In the middle of these struggles there were many hard, honest conversations.  Though at the time I felt they pulled me down, I know that they were also a part of God’s plan.  The feelings of loneliness, the fears, the hurt…drove me to God’s Word where over and over again I found affirmation and the strength to keep moving forward.  He was there.

We…correction I…did a lot of reading during this time. 🙂  We wanted to know all our options.  I have a great resource called The Christian Family’s Guide to Adoption that helped get us started.  It’s a great tool to educate yourself on the three main adoption options (public, international or domestic), the pros and cons to each and the steps needed to proceed.  It’s an American resource, so a few things are different here in Canada, but it’s a great general outline of the process.  It also dispels a lot of the myths people have about adoption.  I also read every adoption/foster care story I could get my hands on, dug into resources tackling the challenges of adoption/fostering and bumped into just the right people at just the right times.  It was amazing the way God provided me with conversations, radio broadcasts (Focus on the Family), Bible verses and books to answer the questions I faced just when I needed them.

The next step was the physical part of moving forward.  We were aware right from the beginning that in order to become adoptive or foster parents we would need to have been married for at least 2 years.  However, we were anxious to move ahead and wanted to at least ‘get our foot in the door.’  So we’d only been married about 6 months the first time we knocked on the door of our local Children’s Aid Society and explained our intentions.  We met a woman that day who would play a huge role in our lives for the next few years, though we didn’t know it at that time!  She explained to us the process (most of which we were aware of) and told us to be in contact again once we had reached that 2 year mark.  She also told us that day that our local society did not currently have the foster-to-adopt program we were familiar with other people doing.  At this point we were mainly focused on adoption, not foster care, and had kind of decided that would be a nice in between way to approach things.  However, we were told at this point that would not be an option.  We could either do just adoption, where we would need to wait to be matched with a child and then proceed, which could take years…or we could become foster parents while we waited to be matched with a child for adoption.  Well…that was easy.  Wait with nothing to do, or wait with kids in our home?  No problem! 🙂

After that little meeting we were back to the waiting game for another 1.5 years.  During this time I did lots more reading, completed my teaching position at a local private school, started a home daycare and spent heaps of time with kids of all ages and needs.  God blessed us with some very special little kids in this time that helped shape our hearts for the challenges we would be faced with down the road.  We realized we could love special needs kids, and that my passion and idealism made me a great advocator for their needs.  We got lots of practise dealing with behaviours, the 24/7 reality of parenthood and exposing kids to the gospel.  We realized what it meant to pour out our hearts and lives for families and children who were not our own.  We realized what it meant to offer grace, both to the kids we loved and their parents.  We realized what it felt like to fail miserably.

We needed that time.

It strengthened our resolve, humbled our pride and braced us for reality.

We were, in the end, able to start our home study process before we reached the 2 years of marriage mark.  Four months before our second anniversary we officially began.  A home study is an assessment of your home and family to consider whether or not you are capable of caring for children from hard places.  It involves some paper work, a training course called PRIDE, interviews in and out of your home and some anxiety.  It’s nerve wracking having someone analyze every part of your life, but it is also good to have to wade through all the parts that have made you who you are.  Despite what we like to believe, we bring all our baggage into every relationship we enter, including those with kids.  Luckily we had a really wonderful woman completing our home study who was gentle, a great listener and easy to talk to.

Our home study took FOREVER!

Ok, not forever.  But a long time.  WAY TOO LONG for this girl!  I do not wait well.  I tried to wait well, I really did, because I just knew that God was trying to teach me to wait, and I just wanted this to be over so I really, really, really tried hard to succeed with this waiting thing.  Sigh.  In the end it took ten months.  It was a long summer!

By the time November rolled around, I was pretty dejected.  We had started in January.  I was so anxious to start this thing!  We were doing NOTHING and I knew there were so many kids out there who needed homes!  I still really have no idea what took so long, but I began praying that we would get our first foster care placement before Christmas.  Like serious praying.  Begging, in other words.  My sister even prayed it too…because I have an awesome sister who, by the way, had to listen to every little bit of this journey from start to end a thousand times over and still loves me! 🙂  XOXO Amberley, I love you!!!!  Thanks for being the other half of my heart.  It is such a relief not to have to explain things sometimes.  🙂

So anyway, a few weeks into November, before our foster care home study was officially approved…we got that call.  “Would you take a 5 week old baby?”

WOULD I TAKE A BABY?!?

ARE YOU SERIOUS!?!?

WOULD I TAKE A BABY!?!?

I literally called Kirby at work sobbing and laughing at the same time.  I couldn’t believe we were finally there.

Thus, our foster care adventure began!  Christmas of 2012 we spent on cloud 9, adoring our Christmas miracle baby.  We brought him home from the hospital, where he had spent the first 5 weeks of his life due to prenatal drug exposure.  We loved that little one with every ounce we could muster.  That first tiny little baby stole our hearts and absolutely took our breath away.  I totally forgot to brace myself for the letting go…which happened 6 weeks later and totally crushed me.  I will never forget that pain.

But still…we knew.

This was what we were called to do.

This was worth it.

See, that little boy deserved to be adored just like that for those 6 weeks, no matter how painful it was to let him go…and amazingly enough, the pain does go away.  It dulls and it fades a bit…and the joy is the memory that stays vivid.

During the next year and a half, we fostered 8 different children, most of those short term or relief placements.  Some of them only stayed for a weekend before they moved on, but each of them were valuable little souls we feel honoured to have loved, if only for a day.

We had two little boys, ages 2 and 4, who stayed with us for 10 months of that time.  They changed our lives.  I still get an ache in my chest thinking of them.  It’s been five months since they left and I can still feel the weight of their bodies in my arms, see their smiles and hear their voices in my house.

I miss them.

One of those 8 children sent us on a journey we didn’t know we could survive.  We spent 2.5 weeks at Sick Kids with him, watching him struggle to survive and recuperate from a complicated heart surgery.  Another child carried us into the world of Autism, and I am officially a wizard with PECS!  🙂  (Seriously…if you know anything about PECS call me up because I am just in love with those things!  Me and speech therapy are like two peas in a pod!)  We had a newborn, we had a 9 year old.  We learned more than I could ever sum up in a few sentences from those 8 children, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.  I wouldn’t trade a second.

It also helped us get a clearer…or maybe more hazy…picture in our minds of the kind of child we felt we could parent.  It’s important to realize that just because every child needs a family, doesn’t mean you are qualified to be that family!  But it’s also important to realize that just because a child has some challenges that may look huge to you, does not mean God is not calling you to see them through His eyes.

Every child is valuable.

Every child deserves a family.

As Christians, we should be the ones willing to sacrifice our own comfort and idea of perfection.

Maybe my kids won’t be the cutest,

or the smartest,

or the most athletic,

or socially ‘successful’ in other people’s eyes.

In fact,

they might spend every day of their lives just struggling to get that C-.

They might fight against the long term consequences of their biological parents’ choices for the rest of their lives, even to the point of needing my assistance to live independently as a 30 or 40 year old.

They might be social misfits.

They might have behaviours that make them hard to love.

But they are valuable and they are lovable.

So if all you care about is a perfect family picture, straight A report cards and children everyone else will understand and love…adoption maybe isn’t for you.  But you know what?  I am idealistic and optimistic enough to believe that there are many more people out there who are willing to sacrifice those things to be Jesus’ hands and feet for these kids!  I think there are more people who will be able to lay aside their selfish pursuits to make a difference in the life of a child and the Kingdom of Heaven.

In January of 2013 we were officially approved for adoption, but were knee deep in foster care.  This brought some challenges.  We loved fostering, but we also were anxious to find the children who would be ours forever.  I don’t even know how to explain how God lead us through the next year.  We continued to foster, saying yes one child at a time.  We also began attending the Adoption Counsel of Ontario Education Day and the Adoption Resource Exchange in Toronto.  We were searching for our forever children, even though we knew we couldn’t do both foster care and adoption at the same time.

The A.R.E. is held twice a year (once in the Spring and once in the Fall) in Toronto at the Metro Convention Centre.  This is an event open to the public, and I would encourage anyone to attend!  Many, many agencies throughout Ontario attend this event, each bringing profiles of children within their region they have not been able to find homes for locally.  Many of these children need to be placed out of their local area for safety reasons, are part of a sibling group, or have medical or emotional needs making it difficult to place them.  These children are all considered special needs, but that could mean they are siblings, above the age of 5, have had trauma in their past or have allergies.

These kids are not unlovable!

If you are a family with an approved adoption home study, you can fill out expression of interest forms for any children you would like to learn more about.  Anyone can also talk to the adoption workers presenting the children’s profiles and learn more about them and what the process would look like to adopt them.  EVERY SINGLE CHILD presented at the A.R.E. is legally free for adoption and waiting for a forever family.  If you’re interested, there is also a website you can become a member of, AdoptOntario, which is a website displaying more profiles of children available for adoption in Ontario.

Right now in Canada, there are more than 30 000 children legally free for adoption in foster care, waiting for a family who will love them enough to give them forever.

To put this in perspective, if merely 10% of evangelical Christians in Canada adopted 1 child, all those children would be looking at a future that includes a family of their own.

What would Jesus do?

What would He say?

Would He care?

The Children’s Aid Society is doing the best they can with the funding and resources provided to them by the government.  No, they are not perfect…but to be fair…nobody is.  Originally, the Children’s Aid Society was run by the church, not the government.  In fact, throughout history it has always been the church who stepped forward to care for orphans.  Until now, of course.  Now we seem to think it’s someone else’s job to do.  This was our baby.  We dropped the ball.  So before we get too upset for the things the government is doing wrong…please remember these are not society’s children.  These are God’s children.  And if that is true…I can only think of one group of people responsible for their care.

The body of Christ.

What really put that in perspective for me was seeing profiles of children at the A.R.E. that specifically mentioned a Christian family as the ideal fit for the child.  Wow.

The first time we attended the A.R.E. was in April of 2013.  That is officially the first time we saw our daughters’ profiles.  We talked to their worker that day, saw a video of them, and took home their one page profiles, which we poured over alongside some others for the next 6 months.  We were not in a position to move forward at that time, since we were fostering two little boys.  Kirby, especially, was really drawn to Akeisha and Alexa’s profiles, which caught my attention.  Usually I am the one with the gut feelings and the drive!  To be honest, I was a little apprehensive.  Akeisha and Alexa were 6 and 4 at that time.  Though we were never looking to adopt an infant, I wasn’t sure I was ready to be Mommy to a 6 and 4 year old, either!  But I was really attracted to them, and I trusted Kirby’s instincts on this one.  As the weeks and months went by, I got more and more used to the idea of an ‘older child’ adoption.

By November of that same year, we were preparing to say goodbye to our little boys and attending the A.R.E. for the second time.  After having the boys for 10 months, we were ready to move on.

We wanted a family.

We wanted kids who would stay.

We felt a little wiped out; a little jaded by the pain…because yes, foster care will do that to you.

We had no idea if Akeisha and Alexa were even still available for adoption, so we did some investigating through our adoption worker and found out that they were, indeed, still waiting for a family!  This was exciting news, and we had high hopes going to the A.R.E. that November.

We came home even more enthused!

There were many kids (over 10) we were interested in, and our adoption worker assured us she felt we would be able to follow through with many of those options.  All the workers of the children we’d inquired about were very interested in us!  It felt like everything was falling into place, making our goodbye to our boys easier than it might have been.

The future looked so bright.

Over the next few months, I went through a dark and scary time.  Slowly, one by one, all the doors closed on us.

No.

No.

No.

I didn’t understand.  What was God doing?  Why was this happening?  I felt, for the millionth time, so out of control!  At the same time, I was missing my boys desperately and had no new foster children to distract me from the emptiness.

The only door that remained open…just a crack…was Akeisha and Alexa, now 7 and 5 years old.  We didn’t get a no, but we didn’t get anything!  We couldn’t get through to their adoption worker no matter how hard we tried.  She always seemed to be away.  Our adoption worker was not hopeful that option would work out, considering we had heard next to nothing.  We tried every little crack and hole we could possibly think of, but even I could not manage to get results!  God was making it clear that this was HIS work, not mine.  I would need to trust Him.

Christmas came and went.

I was starting to lose hope anything would change before the next A.R.E. in May of 2014.  That felt like a long time to wait!  We were resolved at this point to pursue adoption, not fostering, since taking another foster child would jeopardize our position of being available for adoption.

Then our foster care worker phoned.

Our local fostering agency was in a crisis.  They were desperately in need of more foster families, especially for babies.  Would we take this one child, on the condition that if something changed and we were able to move forward with adoption he would be moved to a new home?  Though it terrified me to think that this might mean waiting…again, for adoption…we felt like God was saying this was something we needed to do.

So, to be perfectly honest, I moved forward kicking and screaming, with walls built high.  I was determined not to commit too fully to this child.  I was not going to fall in love with those huge, brown eyes.  I was not going to get addicted to the soft baby skin.  I was not going to let that feeling of possession and protection overtake me.  Most importantly, I was going to try to make sure they were looking for a more permanent place for him.  Because if it came right down to it, I desperately wanted to be able to make the decision to have him moved if it meant we could move forward with adoption…and that was something I had never, ever wanted to do.  It went against everything I believed in.

But God had other plans.

Bigger plans.

I did fall in love.  Even when we heard from Akeisha and Alexa’s adoption worker and found out we could move forward!  Even as we went for meetings and fell in love with the girls we knew were going to be ours.  In the middle of it all, I had a choice to make.  Could I trust God to take care of the details and love this little life placed in my hands now?

I did give up and fight with all my might for this precious little life…especially when we traveled with him to Toronto for his heart surgery.  After all…it was not about me, was it?  I could not longer maintain my wall of self protection when I held his hand and watched him fight for every breath.  There was no space for any resistance in my heart as we spent hour after hour at his bedside, waiting for him to open his eyes.  We needed to be there.  God knew what He was doing.  It was far from my dream come true when we got the call that we were officially chosen for Akeisha and Alexa.  I had pictured being ecstatic…and free to just throw myself into excitement for the first time!  But instead, I was in a crowded cafeteria at the Eaton Centre, worrying about my baby two blocks away at the hospital.  I had no idea what we were going to do.  I was overjoyed to be chosen…but the sky was pretty dreary.  I couldn’t see how it was all going to work.  I felt like a traitor to our little boy, while at the same time knowing there were two little girls who desperately needed and deserved our commitment as well!

This little one’s story is still unfolding, as he is now in the care of my brother and sister-in-law while we move forward with adopting our daughters, Akeisha and Alexa.  (Long, amazing story :))

While we were in Toronto we got the final yes for our adoption, and we got the final yes that my brother and sister-in-law would take the little one we were caring for, and we watched the prayers of the saints lift one precious little boy to our Heavenly Father.

It was overwhelming.

It was a test of obedience.

It was beautiful.

Now, it’s June 2014.

We have spent the past two months visiting our daughters, Akeisha and Alexa.  They live a few hours away from us, so we have been doing lots of traveling back and forth.  They will be moving into our home permanently in the next month sometime, and we are…well…

we are over the moon with excitement!

We are terrified.

We are trusting and obeying one step at a time.

Thanks to God’s perfect timing, we are more ready than we have ever been.

Our girls are by far the best thing that has ever happened to us.  Despite some overwhelming emotions, they are excited to be moving to a forever family they can rightfully, possessively call their OWN!  The four of us together are the happiest place in the world right now 🙂  All my dreams are coming true…but as usual, not in the flowery, hazy way we imagine them but with simple, funny, gut wrenching reality that I wouldn’t change for the world!  It’s not perfect, but it’s good.  It’s not easy, but it’s right.  God has been so good to us.  Knowing our daughters are stepping into a realm of light spread by the workers of the Heavenly Kingdom, I am filled with confidence.

“He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” Philllipians 1:6

AF

 

 

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