Labor Day Weekend
Bill & I have discussed fostering and/or adopting children for over 5 years. And when I say children, I mean babies, we never saw ourselves adopting older children. We love children & always hoped to have a large family. We felt that God was moving us to enlarge our family through adoption. When we moved into our "forever" home 2 years ago we began the process of becoming foster parents for Catholic Social Svcs. We chose them b/c they only deal with babies. They only place newborns, you foster them for 2 weeks until they're placed with their adoptive parents and their adoption waiting list was short. In our minds, this was perfect for us. We could have babies coming in that we could spoil before handing them over to adoptive parents & with the list being short we would eventually get to keep one of these babies as our own. Well, its been 2 years & we have not fostered not even one baby. Ever since we've been fostering for Cath. Soc. Svcs., they've had a dry spell.
Our church, Frazer UMC, started a new program this year called OneFamily. This is a ministry to orphans & widows. I attended the orientation & told Bill all about the opportunities there would be for fostering. We began discussing changing from our current fostering situation to fostering through DHR. Everyone we talked to @ church who fostered through DHR had children placed right away. We felt like there were all these children out there & we were ready to give them a home with love & faith. We still wanted little children though, none over 2 yrs old. I called & spoke with Shepherd's Staff (the church's liaison with DHR) & told them what we were interested in doing. We were given the name & # of a person to contact @ DHR, but I never called. Things kept coming up: we needed to get a baby bed, the kids were sick, I was sick, we went out of town, & on & on. Something was keeping me from contacting DHR, I just didn't realize @ the time that it was God & He had a much bigger plan in store for us.
Through an e-mail from OneFamily we heard about a group of 9 orphans from Ukraine coming for a month long stay @ BridgeStone in Verbena. We looked @ all the opportunities available to volunteer & thought it would be cool to be "house parents" for a weekend. One of our closest friends & their family were doing it & they got us in touch with the director @ BridgeStone - Eric. Eric & I began emailing one another & I was sad to find out that there were no more weekends dates available to be house parents. School had started back by this point & there was no way we could do it on weekdays. We decided we'd just find another way to volunteer. Our daughters soon got the chance to participate with one of the Frazer Sunday school classes hosting the boys. They spent a whole afternoon with them & came home telling us the names of the ones they really felt connections with. Oleg likes to tickle you, Vlad pinches you on your side, this one laughed alot....
We were sad when we found out that our friends Matt & Danielle were having to cancel their weekend with the boys b/c Danielle was going out of town to visit a sick relative. We were also excited though b/c that meant we'd get to take their place. We arrived on the Friday evening of Labor Day weekend. We had no idea what we were doing, so we were really nervous. I finally got to meet Eric that I'd been emailing with for the last couple of weeks. We sat with him & his wife, Wendy, during dinner & they filled us in on what we'd be doing while there. They asked us if we had any plans for adopting. We told them we did, but we were really interested in much younger children.
I immediately went into mom mode & with my OCD self I started cleaning up around Centerpoint, the home that the boys stay in while here. Bill & the girls took most of the boys to the pool while I cleaned. After I finished, me & a couple of the boys who didn't go swim hung out & played wii. The boys came back from the pool & they began to devour snacks & were wild! Eric says it always gets a little crazy on nights they get new house parents. We got in bed late, but had to rise early & start breakfast. We had about 15 people to feed! Saturday was pretty laid back with no engagements for the boys to attend. They had a bible study time with Eric after breakfast & then Bill & the girls were taking them to play paintball. I'm still in mom mode, straightening up and trying to stay on top of the "home" stuff. That night, things began to change drastically for me. One of the boys had an ear infection, probably swimmer's ear from all the swimming they'd been doing. He didn't feel well. I took his temp & he had a fever. I gave him Tylenol, put drops in his ear, & tucked him in to bed. He was so appreciative of the care I was showing, nothing really special just what I'd do if it were my own child that were sick. He just smiled @ me and told me "sank you" in his best English & then it happened - I was in love.
Sunday was a very busy day. The boys had to attend a church svc @ 11 in Prattville, lunch to follow hosted by one of the Sunday school classes @ the church, meet a couple @ Target in Montgomery @ 2 to buy the boys new blue jeans, & then to a pool party in Autaugaville by 4:30. It actually went very smoothly & we pulled up to the party in Autaugaville exactly @ 4:30. I continued to spend time with my sweet boy with the ear infection, but this evening was the 1st time I wasn't cooking or cleaning & I really got to start getting to know all the boys. This was supposed to be our last night, but we were going to be so late getting back & Monday was a holiday, so we decided to stay another night.
Monday was another laid back day - Thank Goodness! It was a rainy day, so we just hung out with the boys, playing wii, & doing crafts. I rode with Eric to take my sweet boy with the ear infection to the ER. The fever was continuing & it was becoming obvious that the drops alone weren't working. When we got back, I gave him his meds & tucked him into bed. How was I ever going to leave this sweet boy? How was I going to leave any of these boys? How in the world can you fall absolutely in love with kids in just 3 days? I was beginning to dread 6pm, the time our shift would be over. I could tell Bill was feeling the same way & our daughters too. We stayed for dinner & then began our goodbyes. I think I did very well, just a little teary, but Bill's heart was totally breaking. He said it was one of the hardest things he'd ever done in his life - telling these boys goodbye.
There was an adoption information meeting on Tuesday night, so we thought we'd go & just get some information....but in our hearts I think we already knew we were doing more than just getting information.
Bill & I have discussed fostering and/or adopting children for over 5 years. And when I say children, I mean babies, we never saw ourselves adopting older children. We love children & always hoped to have a large family. We felt that God was moving us to enlarge our family through adoption. When we moved into our "forever" home 2 years ago we began the process of becoming foster parents for Catholic Social Svcs. We chose them b/c they only deal with babies. They only place newborns, you foster them for 2 weeks until they're placed with their adoptive parents and their adoption waiting list was short. In our minds, this was perfect for us. We could have babies coming in that we could spoil before handing them over to adoptive parents & with the list being short we would eventually get to keep one of these babies as our own. Well, its been 2 years & we have not fostered not even one baby. Ever since we've been fostering for Cath. Soc. Svcs., they've had a dry spell.
Our church, Frazer UMC, started a new program this year called OneFamily. This is a ministry to orphans & widows. I attended the orientation & told Bill all about the opportunities there would be for fostering. We began discussing changing from our current fostering situation to fostering through DHR. Everyone we talked to @ church who fostered through DHR had children placed right away. We felt like there were all these children out there & we were ready to give them a home with love & faith. We still wanted little children though, none over 2 yrs old. I called & spoke with Shepherd's Staff (the church's liaison with DHR) & told them what we were interested in doing. We were given the name & # of a person to contact @ DHR, but I never called. Things kept coming up: we needed to get a baby bed, the kids were sick, I was sick, we went out of town, & on & on. Something was keeping me from contacting DHR, I just didn't realize @ the time that it was God & He had a much bigger plan in store for us.
Through an e-mail from OneFamily we heard about a group of 9 orphans from Ukraine coming for a month long stay @ BridgeStone in Verbena. We looked @ all the opportunities available to volunteer & thought it would be cool to be "house parents" for a weekend. One of our closest friends & their family were doing it & they got us in touch with the director @ BridgeStone - Eric. Eric & I began emailing one another & I was sad to find out that there were no more weekends dates available to be house parents. School had started back by this point & there was no way we could do it on weekdays. We decided we'd just find another way to volunteer. Our daughters soon got the chance to participate with one of the Frazer Sunday school classes hosting the boys. They spent a whole afternoon with them & came home telling us the names of the ones they really felt connections with. Oleg likes to tickle you, Vlad pinches you on your side, this one laughed alot....
We were sad when we found out that our friends Matt & Danielle were having to cancel their weekend with the boys b/c Danielle was going out of town to visit a sick relative. We were also excited though b/c that meant we'd get to take their place. We arrived on the Friday evening of Labor Day weekend. We had no idea what we were doing, so we were really nervous. I finally got to meet Eric that I'd been emailing with for the last couple of weeks. We sat with him & his wife, Wendy, during dinner & they filled us in on what we'd be doing while there. They asked us if we had any plans for adopting. We told them we did, but we were really interested in much younger children.
I immediately went into mom mode & with my OCD self I started cleaning up around Centerpoint, the home that the boys stay in while here. Bill & the girls took most of the boys to the pool while I cleaned. After I finished, me & a couple of the boys who didn't go swim hung out & played wii. The boys came back from the pool & they began to devour snacks & were wild! Eric says it always gets a little crazy on nights they get new house parents. We got in bed late, but had to rise early & start breakfast. We had about 15 people to feed! Saturday was pretty laid back with no engagements for the boys to attend. They had a bible study time with Eric after breakfast & then Bill & the girls were taking them to play paintball. I'm still in mom mode, straightening up and trying to stay on top of the "home" stuff. That night, things began to change drastically for me. One of the boys had an ear infection, probably swimmer's ear from all the swimming they'd been doing. He didn't feel well. I took his temp & he had a fever. I gave him Tylenol, put drops in his ear, & tucked him in to bed. He was so appreciative of the care I was showing, nothing really special just what I'd do if it were my own child that were sick. He just smiled @ me and told me "sank you" in his best English & then it happened - I was in love.
Sunday was a very busy day. The boys had to attend a church svc @ 11 in Prattville, lunch to follow hosted by one of the Sunday school classes @ the church, meet a couple @ Target in Montgomery @ 2 to buy the boys new blue jeans, & then to a pool party in Autaugaville by 4:30. It actually went very smoothly & we pulled up to the party in Autaugaville exactly @ 4:30. I continued to spend time with my sweet boy with the ear infection, but this evening was the 1st time I wasn't cooking or cleaning & I really got to start getting to know all the boys. This was supposed to be our last night, but we were going to be so late getting back & Monday was a holiday, so we decided to stay another night.
Monday was another laid back day - Thank Goodness! It was a rainy day, so we just hung out with the boys, playing wii, & doing crafts. I rode with Eric to take my sweet boy with the ear infection to the ER. The fever was continuing & it was becoming obvious that the drops alone weren't working. When we got back, I gave him his meds & tucked him into bed. How was I ever going to leave this sweet boy? How was I going to leave any of these boys? How in the world can you fall absolutely in love with kids in just 3 days? I was beginning to dread 6pm, the time our shift would be over. I could tell Bill was feeling the same way & our daughters too. We stayed for dinner & then began our goodbyes. I think I did very well, just a little teary, but Bill's heart was totally breaking. He said it was one of the hardest things he'd ever done in his life - telling these boys goodbye.
There was an adoption information meeting on Tuesday night, so we thought we'd go & just get some information....but in our hearts I think we already knew we were doing more than just getting information.
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