Our Kids

This is such an exciting time for us! As many of you know, we have prayerfully entered into this journey, believing whole-heartedly that God has at least two more children for us, and now we are paper pregnant! We don't want to leave out the specifics in case you have not heard all the details.

We are entering right now into Washington State's Foster Adopt program. As bumpy as we all know the road can be to foster/adopt, there are many ungrounded fears about this program that we hope our lives will serve to diffuse.

Nationwide, there are more than one hundred thousand of children in the U.S. foster care system waiting for permanent families. Child welfare professionals must recruit potential adoptive families for these children who are waiting for adoption.

A national survey by Harris Interactive revealed that 48 million Americans considered adoption from foster care in 2007, however:

- 67% were unnecessarily concerned that biological parents could return to claim the children; once the court finalizes the legal termination of parental rights, the parents can never return to claim the child.

- 36% were unsure or confused about the adoption process.

- 45% believed children in foster care have entered the system because of juvenile delinquency. In reality, the vast majority of the 129,000 children waiting in the U.S. foster care system entered through no fault of their own, as victims of neglect, abandonment and/or abuse.

The more we learn about the foster adoption process, the firmer our resolve becomes to get through the process and bring our children home. So who are our children?

We certainly want whoever it is that God has in mind for us. With that in mind, we would love to have at least one boy. The children we have in mind will be under eight and over three, preferably a sibling set. Children who come into the foster system with brothers or sisters are more difficult to place, as are children over six. We feel strongly about keeping siblings together so we're hopeful that the children we receive will be from the same family and at least one of them being over six.

Many people are nervous about the fact that children coming from the foster system have been exposed to some harsh realities of life in unfit homes. The more we learn about this, we are finding that children who have been exposed to such abuse that causes them to be dangerous to other children will not be placed in a home that currently has children. Phew . . .

What is the adoption process like?

Well, we just finished our paperwork, which, we must say, was extensive. Yeah! We now are in the process of retrieving our reference forms. The next steps for us are: pre-service training (in the state of Washington, the training is called Pride), TB screening, CPR classes, fingerprints and background checks, getting our house ready for more children (yikes!) and having a home-study completed on us as a family and the suitability/safety of our house.

The costs of adopting a child from the public foster care system are typically kept to a bare minimum and may be eligible for reimbursement. Incurred costs are generally limited to household preparation, attorney fees, and adoption home studies. The typical foster adopt process costs up to $2,500, not including household prep. We will be building an additional two rooms out of our current playroom space and it looks like we'll be covering our now two-story foyer for additional space for our kids to play. I'm not sure exactly how much all that will cost. We could use some help in designing and building it though! Know anyone who believes in God's plan for adoption and who has those abilities? (wink!)

As you can see, there's a lot involved in adoption, so please remember us as you are praying. We know that God has said that "external religious worship [religion as it is expressed in outward acts] that is pure and unblemished in the sight of God the Father is this: to visit and help and care for the orphans and widows in their affliction and need, and to keep oneself unspotted and uncontaminated from the world" James 1:27. America's orphans can be found in its foster care system. They are the unseen, domestic orphans, the neglected, and the lonely. We also know that "God sets the lonely in families" (Psalm 68:6). We know he will set two in ours. We are sure that He will take care of us monetarily, emotionally, and with favor in paperwork as we set out to rescue our children. He may just use you to do it! "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." (Hebrews 11:1)

We love you and we're so excited for what will come next! We'll keep you posted. If you subscribe to our blog, any time we update it, you'll be emailed. God bless you!