Why My Mind Has Been Wandering Overtime - Part 2

It is way past my bedtime, so I am going to sum up this post a little. Over the last several years, my husband and I have really felt a heart for adopting children. We currently do not have any children and we both independently started to feel that adoption might be the way we create our family. It kind of surprised us both at first, but God has a funny way of doing that. Since that time, we both also felt that we should focus more on older children and/or sibling groups as it is so heart wrenching to see siblings split up or any child try and grow up without love and nurturing and there always seems to be such a high demand for infants. We have been very open with our families and friends over the last few years on our intentions (that is also why we bought such a large house for just the 2 of us), but we have been kind of slow in getting it done. There has always been something that has hindered moving forward, but that just confirmed to me that it wasn't the right time yet. We were, however, feeling that 2008 was the year to make this happen and it appears that we were on the right track as God has been giving us a pretty clear road map on this venture. It is hard to argue with the following:

• Daniel & I talking at the end of 2007 and deciding that we should pursue adoption in 2008.
• Out of the blue in the fall of 2007, my hair stylist (who doesn't attend my church) said, "Hey, I hear that someone at your church is going to be starting a Bible Study on Adoption and I thought that you might be interested." Sure enough, next Sunday it was announced and we felt that we better sign right up. It lasted a few months and we met some lovely people in the process (Hello lady whose name is spelled the same forwards and backwards! )
• As soon as this was over, my husband was approached at work by a co-worker who handed him a brochure on some informational classes that were being held about 30 minutes away on Adoption. They started that very week and so we signed up for those and gained tons of information.
• We had 2 older vehicles, the newest being a 1995 Taurus with 135,000 miles on it, and we decided when that gave up on us later on, we should probably look into a more family friendly car...possibly a mini van. Without warning in February of this year, the Taurus just quit. So, mini van shopping we went, and a mini van we purchased.
• We finished the informational classes and thought that it would be nice to talk to some couples that might have adopted in our area to help us decide what county/agency to go through and that very next Sunday we ran into someone that introduced herself to us at church on Sunday and we stumbled onto the topic of adoption and she told us about another couple that had just started fostering a sibling group and gave us contact information.
  
• This couple met with us right away and gave us a wonderful recommendation to a local Foster Care Agency that we didn't even know existed. Guess where it is located....the same Building Complex that my husband works in!
• We talked to a few other people to get some ideas of other options available and we were leaning to the one above, but not entirely sure.
• Then the whole basement thing (see previous post) came about and I really wanted to put the Fostering/Adoption thing on hold and that week a email was sent out to our church congregation from the above agency saying that they were really in need of Foster Parents and they were going to have an informational meeting the following week. So, we went.
• After the meeting, we both immediately thought that this was the agency for us, but we might put off the licensing classes until after the basement and guess what? The classes were actually going to start in a week and it seemed like the thing to do so we just got home from our first class!

So, I didn't appear to shorten my story much at all, but that is the other reason that my mind is wandering overtime and I am probably going to have lots to say about it in the future.

Note: Our intention is still to adopt, but we have found out that children (other than infants) that are removed from their homes go directly into Foster Homes and are not eligible for adoption for up to 2 years to give their biological parents time to reform. Then, if the children become eligible for adoption, the Foster Family would have the first opportunity to adopt them, so it sounds like Fostering is where we want to begin.

Second Note: We talked to Mr. Concrete Man today and he is feeling pretty hesitant about attempting the basement yet this year. He said that Mr. House Lifter is thinking about it and they will decide by the end of the week.....