We are official!

We are officially licensed Foster Parents!! Whohoo!! We can be called at anytime now! We are so excited and can't wait to see what God has planned!

Final Homestudy: 2 thumbs up

Last Thursday we had our final home study! Everything went great and we are good to go! The only thing we are waiting on at this point is my CAN (child and neglect) clearance to come back. Micah's is already in. Our SW told us she should be calling at anytime to tell us that we are approved and there is a chance that she could be telling us about a child in the same phone call! We are so ready y'all! :)

One Year Blogiversary

One Year ago today I started this blog. We have come a long way in just one year. When I first started this blog I only shared it with my mom and brother. It's a scary thing to put your dreams and your fears out there for people to read and have opinions about. But I am so glad that I overcame that fear and let anyone who wanted to be apart of our journey to parenthood an opportunity to do so! This past year has been tough. Its been a year full of anticipation, excitement, growth, and waiting. Lots and lots of waiting. In just one year we made the decision to become foster parents, waited and waited for GPS classes to begin, started the GPS classes and finished and are now days away from being approved and open for placements. I am so excited to see what this next year holds for us. I'm sure it will have its wonderful moments and hard moments. I'm sure that we will have times of joy and contentment, uncertainty and doubt. There really is no way to know, but the one thing that I am certain of is that God is faithful and His plan is so much better than anything I can imagine. My life verse this past year has been Romans 8:28 "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." The verse I'm claiming as mine as we start this next season is "Perhaps you were created for such a time as this." Esther 4:14

I hope you will continue to follow along in the 2nd year of our journey. 

So Close

We are thisclose to being licenced foster parents!! Woo Hoo!! We couldn't be more excited or scared if we're being honest! ;) Last week we had our last two GPS classes. Tuesday night was panel night, where we were able to invite our family to come. We ate and had a panel of different people there to answer questions. There was a foster parent, a child's social worker, and the director of DHR and the director of the child and neglect unit. We really enjoyed the night and it seemed like all of our parents got a lot out of it as well.

Then Thursday night we had our final class. We had our fingerprints done to complete our background checks and Micah had to do CPR. I'm already certified so I just watched and took pictures! :)

This Thursday is our final Home Study!! It's hard to believe we are at the end of this part or our journey. We are thrilled to begin the next part of the Journey.....to love and care for the children God has planned for us!

Us with our certificates for completing the GPS classes!

my niece :)

Early Wednesday morning right after I had gotten to work I received a text from my brother saying: "being admitted to the hospital. Baby coming today." I was in total shock....my sister in law wasn't due for 2 more weeks so this wasn't something I was expecting at all! I was thrilled. I left work early so I could work on some  papers we needed to finish to turn in to our social worker the following night, I ran to Wal-Mart to put together a container full of snacks for the new parents and as soon as Micah came home from work we picked up Mamaw and headed for B'Ham.

Hannah Frances. Born November 5th at 3:05 pm. 7lbs 3oz 19in long. She is absolutely perfect.

The new mommy. :)

The new daddy! :)

The happiest Aunt and Uncle ever. I didn't know until today that it was possible to love someone so unconditionally so fast.

Fearfully and Wonderfully Made. Psalms 139.14

Foster/Adoption Announcement

When Micah and I first started down this foster to adopt road we told each other that we were going to experience this with as much excitement that we would have if we were pregnant. We have done several things that are similar to what someone would do if they were pregnant. We prepared a room, we took pictures similar to maternity photos (minus the bump ;) ), and we decided to send out announcement's. Most people would send out birth announcements but we wanted to let our family know what we were doing before we have a child in our life. We are pretty close with most of our family but we have a large extended family that may not know that we are becoming foster parents so we thought this would be a good way to let them know. Plus it was fun & exciting for us to do! I found these cards on Vista print. They were actually pregnancy announcements and I just changed the wording! We loved that we got to add a personal message on the back.

Front

Back

The Light

Needles! Oh how I despise you!! They hurt!! Today I had to have some blood work and a TB test done for part of our medical clearance for DHR. I am a horrible patient.... I know it and I own up to it!! This process has been long and stressful but we can see the light at the end of the tunnel! Only two more weeks of classes!! Whoo Hoo!!