We Survived Foster Care

As I am sitting here trying to wrap my head around the past three years we are far more at peace now that our whirlwind of a journey has moved onto a new chapter. A chapter where I sit here in bed next to our son as he snores away napping in his favorite dinosaur sweater and NO PANTS!!!! as he would exclaim. {There's the sensory stuff coming out!}

We began our foster care journey like many other couples. We had ideals of helping babies and "saving" them. We. were. SO. wrong. For us the moment much of our perceptions and outlook changed was when we met our son's birth mother. Sitting there as strangers but with the same overflowing love for the same little boy connected us on a level I wasn't ready for. I am sure she wasn't either.

It was then that my heart ached for her, for our son and a little bit selfishly for us too. 

This is where things got a bit messy, emotionally, the case, the dynamics, the soon to be recognized special needs. We knew foster care was not going to be easy but we so badly wanted a family whether it was just for a little while or forever. We certainly picked up a lot of family in this process from both sides of the birth family and others who jumped into the case to help advocate for our sons' best interests. Our tribe grew quite rapidly as the case spun out of control. Even though we went through the ringer for our son and his family (and ours) it was worth it. All of it.

Our story may echo many other stories out there but to us it felt very up close and different being at the center of it all. Through a lot of faith, fear and something that resembled grace we are now at the end of the chapter of foster care and into that of adoption and figuring out what things look like now as far as day-to-day, helping our son know his story and finding our normal in relationships with his birth family.

We won't share anything here about the case or specifics to our son's story. That is his and his only to share. But what we will share is what we learned from this adventure of a storm. And guess what...We would do this again and again and plan to.

What season of foster care and adoption are you in? Just digging to learn more or in the trenches? Perhaps you are on this peaceful but murky side still trying to figure things out just like us. We would love to know and to support you, so let us know in the comments below.