Meeting our Kids Today: April 22, 2011

We will meet our children today. Licensed for foster care and adoption 11 months ago, we did not know this would happen so soon or at all. We set out to simply see where God would lead us. Would we only foster many children for short periods of time? Would we adopt a sibling group of 3? Would we become overrun with fear and quit the whole thing?

There are so many things to be afraid of, unless you daily apply Light to your lie. The lie is that life would be sweeter for Caton and Georgia if we didn't risk their health and emotional well-being by bringing strange and traumatized children into our home. If this was a 20/20 episode, just about everyone would agree. But our life is not dictated by the concerns of the secular world. What they worry about, I will rejoice over. What they fear, I will embrace. Because if God is for us, who can be against us?

Soap box be gone. And if I sound preachy....it's just me reminding myself of the mission.

Okay, so since that last paragraph, the current foster mom for these kids, Jaylon and Brianna called. Wow. Interesting conversation since I have judged their family pretty harshly for dumping these kids. Her excuse was that their 7 year old is too close in age to Jaylon and Brianna (7 and 9) and that she felt like she was always correcting one and not the other and afraid of the damage it would do for them to think they weren't loved as much as the bio kids. Well, all siblings have that battle, so it's not a valid reason. But she said one thing that might let her off the hook in my eyes. She said "you can love them better". If she couldn't daily decide to love them regardless of her emotional lack of gushing gooey tenderness, then maybe it is better this way.

The thing I was most afraid of is these kids feeling like someone decided they did not want them. The therapist told the foster parents to tell them that the judge decided they'll never have to see their aunt again (she abused them and was appealing for custody) but that he decided for them to live with a different family. I'm cool with this. Yes, it lets the current foster family off the hook, but it's so much better for the kids to think a 3rd party made this decision than to feel dumped.

The reason for her call was to clue me in on the judge-made-the-decision conversation she had with the kids and to tell me how excited they are to meet their new Mommy and Daddy. Deeeeeeep Breath. I didn't see it coming. I expected pain and sorrow and skepticism from these kids. But God gave us giddy, excited, can't wait to meet you instead. He's cool like that.

We are prepared for a long hard battle to over-come bad behaviors, lying as a way of life, bed wetting, etc. But it wouldn't surprise me at all if God gives us a much easier road because we have not tried to control this process at all. We kept ourselves wide open to foster or adopt. To boys or girls. To age 0 or 18. To good kids or bad kids. We simply had faith in God's hand in this. We used discernment where necessary, followed the nudging of the Holy Spirit and kept Satan at bay through scripture meditation. Obedience is all that is required. God doesn't want misery in our lives. He just wants us to be okay with it if that's what he decides. Whatever He wants. We'll see.

If I sound like I am tooting my own horn. I am. I feel good that I overcame all the things I blogged about last year. I renewed my mind so that I could know God's perfect plan. And now I have few doubts that this weekend will be anything less than a celebration of the union of our family to our long lost children.

See ya at church this Sunday! You know wanna get a good look at 'em!

I can't WAIT to post pics of Jaylon and Brianna playing with Caton and Georgia. My next post should be so much more colorful and look out for that Christmas card this year!!!