I'm sure some of you know that my husband, Matt and I love the idea of adventure. We totally see chasing Jesus in this way; a glorious adventure we get to be apart of!
Sometimes God's call on our life feels quite humorous. As soon as things seem to settle, become routine, or even comfortable, God shows us a new part of His heart and lets us know its time to take part in that with Him. The newest part of this journey is something that was never a plan B. It has never been is we can't ___ then we'll ___. It isn't something God recently unveiled our eyes about.
Care for orphans has always been plan A. When, if, and every time the change was available, we want to care for the children and their parents who's families have been broken. Some times this might look like having students in our home on a regular basis to give them love, encouragement, and consistency. It might be taking part in sharing love through Angel Tree or Operation Christmas Child boxes. Wither these are children in need of care domestically or abroad, we want to be apart of it!
Most recently, God has shown us that becoming someone's "forever family" may be on the horizon. This excites me so much. I think adoption can be one of the best pictures of what Christ did for us and I want to experience that. At the same time, I've been learning a lot about foster-care and adoption that gives me a better picture of the entire scenario that breaks my heart more but also softens the excitement about being ask to step in as someone's adopted parent.
Matt and I are beginning the process of opening our home for foster-care/adoption through DHS here in Arkansas. There's a whole lot to what that means and what it looks like BUT we are also apart of a group called The CALL who exist to help Christian families navigate the overwhelming process within this agency. The CALL stands for Children of Arkansas being Loved for a Lifetime. We have filled out initial paperwork to begin the process and just this past weekend completed our first 15 of 30 hours of PRIDE {Parent Resources for Information, Development, and Education} training via The Call so that we can soon finalize everything so our home qualifies to be opened to state agencies to assist those children {and their families} in need of care.
During this process I'm going to try and share as much as possible because I know there are tons of you out there who are curious about this process. Maybe you have a heart for fostering or adoption. Maybe you have a gazillion questions, aren't sure if this is for you, or maybe you just want some help walking through all of this. If you're like me, it would be nice to at least have an idea of what you're walking into before you start. That's what I'm doing to attempt to do. I wanna cover logistics like names of agencies I'm learning, resources that have deemed super helpful, and even thoughts and emotions that come up during this journey.
SO if you have any questions, PLEASE ask {comment, email, message, etc} or I may not touch on something that would be great for you and others to hear about. We've started more detailed conversations with our littles lately about this and their questions have lead to some great discussions!
Just for the record: our family hasn't decided which route(s) we are taking at this time {ie fostering and/or adoption}
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