6 Months Later

At the beginning of Feb., we made the decision to become licensed as foster parents. We jumped right in and completed all of our paperwork and trainings and fingerprints . Licensing is supposed to be complete within 90 days of turning in your paperwork. Here we are 6 months later . . .

It's been one thing after another. A lost paper. A backed up office. A brand new licenser. A long wait for background checks. Someone forgot to have us sign some paperwork. And forgot to send out our background checks to the other states we've lived in. Another wait for background checks.

But today an email came. It told me that they only have one thing left. Just one thing, and we will be done. And so now we are only dependent on the secretary who will type up our license. That's it.

I'm sure our licenser was so relieved to pass our file on and be rid of me. Let's just say, I'm good at checking in on things through email and phone calls.

I will be so glad to know that everything is done. Done just in time for us to leave on vacation, summer to end, and school to start.

Um, I guess someone didn't realize that wasn't our plan. Our wise plan was to get licensed and start as foster parents around the time I was done teaching preschool for the school year. And then we would have a whole summer to take kids in because I wouldn't be working and could be really flexible. We would all have a nice summer vacation to adjust to any family changes. Doesn't that sound like a good plan? We thought so.

Goodbye to our plan! I guess I'm ok with that though. My plans don't ever turn out near as well as our Heavenly Father's plans for our family do.

During this whole process, I've shared my frustrations, confusion, and thoughts with close friends and family. I've heard different perspectives. Someone told me once, "yeah maybe this isn't the right thing for you to be doing." All signs point that way. But if we gave up on this, and if we gave up on our license through LDSFS, we would be abandoning hope.

I love Emily Dickinson's words, "Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul And sings the tune without the words And never stops at all. . ."

With hope in my heart, I believe the good things in life don't always come easily, but the journey is worth it. I have hope that no matter what happens--adoption, fostering, or maybe nothing--it will be the right experience for us. To my hope, I add my faith in Christ. He knows us personally and we are never alone through our trials. Hope brings peace, happiness, and strength.

I'm ready to see what happens this week. Will we get our license? Or will all the computers fail and they run out of ink so they are unable to finish our licensing? Time will tell . . .