Happy New Year!

Wow, what a year!  I was looking back at my posts from the end of 2013, and I never would have pictured the year that we had in 2014.  We were looking to adopt privately again, and had even filled out all of the paperwork to begin the process again.  Then in January, everything changed and God began to open our hearts to fostering.  I was terrified, but we started the process anyway.  Here we are, less than a year later, with four little girls 3 and under (we're respiting a little 3 year old) sleeping upstairs. Troy went to bed early since he's on the early shift, and I'll stay up until midnight to watch the ball drop by myself.  But I don't think I'd have it any other way!  

The holidays were a little different this year.  I decided early on that I needed to manage my expectations and not plan to do too many things.  I still felt rushed in the end, but it could have been a lot crazier!  

Baby S spent Christmas with her bio family, so we took Keragan and baby j with us as we traveled to see family.  They did pretty well traveling, and had a great time with friends and family.  In fact, Keragan was so used to being with other kids/family that she was devastated when we pulled into our driveway and told her that none of her cousins were coming.  She told us that she was staying in the car until her friends came.  It's hard for me to comprehend this, as I was Sooo greatful to be home and ready to have some alone time.  But I guess that's the difference between an introvert and extrovert!

She didn't have to wait long, though, as we are providing respite care for a little 3 year old foster girl.  We generally aren't doing respite because of the craziness we already have going on here, however we know the little girl and her foster family, so we decided to make the exception.  Keragan is loving having someone to play with again, and it's fun having a guest!

Who knows what the next year has in store for us... I'm trying to embrace that part of fostering (trying being the key word!). Our girls have court in May & June, and at this point the parents have made little to no progress on their case plans.  It's hard to know how to feel about the parents' case plans.  It feels awful to hope that they don't complete it, but at the same time these girls are a part of our family now.  I'm biased, but I believe that the best thing for these girls is to stay with us.  After a year (the May & June court dates), the parents' rights can be terminated (then we could adopt), the kids could go back, or they could extend the case plan for another year of integrating them into our family while having weekly visitations with bio parents to remind them of a life they could possibly have.  The state harps on the fact that disruption (picking up and being moved to a different home) causes so many issues for kids, but they don't se to take into account the upheaval caused by taking them out of good foster homes to place them back with a family they don't know, just share DNA with.  So we love them and do what we need to do while we wait!

Have a happy New Year!