Monday, January 14, 2013

Parenthood


“Incredible change happens in your life when you decide to take control of what you do have power over instead of craving control over what you don't.

For 2 years, 5 months, 3 weeks, and 5 days, I’ve tried to control something I never had control over in the first place.  Trying to have a baby, as I’ve often mentioned, took over my life.  I tried to control my body, but as I’ve sadly had to learn, my body is just as stubborn as I am, and it doesn’t take commands very well.  I finally had to learn to let go of the selfishness of wanting to have my own baby (I’ll blog about that soon), and I had to let God open my eyes to the other door that He has opened for us. 

So, that other door I just mentioned?  Yeah, about that…let me explain.  After Luke and I exhausted every ounce of money we could come up with, without getting a loan, to pay for infertility medicines and doctor appointments, we’ve decided to pursue parenthood via a different route.

We’re going to be foster parents.

Today, Luke and I are beginning this new journey knowing that we’ve got a long road ahead of us.  Fostering won’t be easy.  Many of the children that are being pushed around in the foster care system come from very tough situations, and many children have behavioral and even development problems.  We’re well aware that we could parent children for a year or more and then have them reunited with their parents, but we know reunification is the goal of fostering, and we’ll deal with that when the time comes.

But, in the meantime, we’re so excited to start this new journey.  Tonight we have our first Foster Care class.  The classes are on Monday nights from 6:00-9:00PM, and they last for 10 weeks.  So, if all our paperwork and home-study gets approved the way it should (I mean, we’ve never been arrested and we don’t live in a cardboard box), we will be licensed on March 18, 2013 which means we can finally be parents.  (I tear up just thinking about it!)

The road to becoming parents has been a long one filled with heartache and lots of tears, but I’m so thankful (no matter how painful it has been) that I had to go through everything.  Yes, I wish that we could have been able to bring home the two babies we lost along the way to parenthood, but even through the loss, I’ve learned so much (I’ll blog about that soon, too!). 

I want to say a huge thank you to everyone for your kind words, thoughts, and prayers over the last few years.  I sincerely hope that you’ll continue to follow my journey to motherhood via fostering to adopt.

With lots of joy and anticipation,
Alicia Marie


6 comments:

  1. I'm so happy for you. I've always wanted to foster children. I know you'll be great parents.

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  2. This is a wonderful thing you are doing. So many children need loving adults to hold their hands when their parents are unable to. Good luck!

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  3. I'm so glad you guys have chosen this path, it truely takes a calling and I know you will bless a childs life by caring for them! I'm sure it won't make the losses any easier but it will certainly give you new hope.

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  4. I'm sooo excited for you! What a beautiful decision! I cannot wait to watch this journey unfold, and finally see you and Luke be parents! And yaknow, something tells me that you will have a baby or 2 of your own one day too. Big congrats to you both!

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  5. So excited for you! The road may be hard, but you have such a beautiful, caring heart and will make a great foster parent (not to mention FULL parent someday!). Many prayers as you embark on this journey.

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  6. Just checking in on your progress and I'm so thrilled to see you are going to foster! Just wanted to say hi and I love the photos from your recent shoot.

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