Right before Christmas, we received a call about a sibling set (1.5 yr old boy and 6 mos old girl) that was removed from the home and needed emergency placement right away. Now, we were told that we would have a few weeks notice since the children typically being placed for adoption would be coming from a foster home. This was a different case which the social worker thought would probably be moving towards adoption, so they decided to try fost-adopt placement right from the beginning. The Jester was at the airport getting on a plane for a business trip, so I called him and asked him what he thought. We decided to say yes and called our awesome social worker. We were one of two families interested (with the other family also a Kinship Center family). Since it was an emergency placement, the social worker chose the other family because they live closer to the birth family. While we were somewhat relieved since it was such short notice and we were not quite ready at home, we took it much harder than we thought.
In the last 3 weeks, we have received calls/emails about 8 children. As I mentioned before, we had to select "criteria" we were comfortable parenting from the very beginning. The first four children offered were outside of the criteria we felt comfortable with, including a newborn baby boy, so we decided not to get more information/accept those placements. Then, we were emailed a sibling set of two girls who were much older (6 and 9 years old). While this was definitely outside the 0-4 years old age range we specified, their limited information profiles were so sweet and touching. We prayed and slept on the decision and decided to submit our home study for consideration. The way the process typically works for this county is that they wait about a month for all interested families, then they sit down and have a meeting with the social workers to determine who is the best match for the girls. At that point, whoever is selected sits down and has a "full disclosure meeting" with the key players in the children's lives and we would get more of the details of their "situations". If we were still comfortable, we would move forward with meeting the girls and transitioning them to our home.
When we do take a placement, we are required to attend Care Support Group, which is where all the Kinship Center families who have children get together and hear a speaker or discuss challenges they are facing related to their children. The Jester and I attended last weekend since Sharon Roszia, an adoption expert was speaking on Birth Parent Forgiveness. It was eye opening to hear her point of view on the children's birth parent relationships and how we should approach them with the children. The most difficult part of that whole day was when I saw the sibling set that was not placed with us. The couple who they are placed with was in our training class and if we had chosen another couple, it would have been them. They are so great, which makes me feel so much better about not getting that placement. But then..... I saw the kids..... I didn't realize that not getting that placement was hard on me until that moment. It was all I could do not to cry then, but I reminded myself that we will get the right placement at the right time, and God is in control.
This week, I am in the frigid "city" of Marion, IL for work and during my shuttle ride to the rental car pickup location, we received an email from our awesome social worker (by the way, thats her official title in our home) asking if we were interested in submitting our home study for a sibling set of 2 (Girl- 9mos, Boy-5 years) who both have developmental delays. Before I even saw the email, The Jester said yes and we have our homestudy submitted! This is the same county as the 2 older girls, so the process is the same and we will not know more about either for several weeks.
So far, we have not purchased anything since it seems we are more open to ages and number of children than we previously listed. BUT.... I was in Cracker Barrel (first time ever by the way) and saw the CUTEST little bumble bee dresses. Soooooo, I may or may not have purchased the 2T Black and White polka dot dress on the top row all the way to the right of the picture below......
-The matching process is HARD, so prayers for our emotions are greatly appreciated.
-Selling our house for the right price at the right time
-Work: The Jester's contracts should be coming through soon, and that my travel will die down a bit, especially when we get a placement.
-For our kids... whoever they may be, wherever they are.....
