So here is our long overdue update about our family. I will try to catch you up on the major changes and growing our family has done in the past two months. Remember when we wanted two little boys to adopt? Well God’s plan seemed a little different.
We got a little six year old girl on January 25th. She is a pistol! She is talking and asking questions from the time she wakes up until she goes to sleep. She was having a tough time at her last foster home and they requested that she be moved right away. She was only supposed to stay with us for a month until she could go and join her 3 siblings in a new foster placement. Her siblings are a 4yr old girl, a 3yr old boy, and a 2yr old girl. **This is where God plan started to bubble up in our lives.
All of the behaviors and struggles she had at her last foster home seemed to disappear in our home. Ok not disappear but close! She was thriving! Her therapists, social worker, case manager and attorney are all thrilled and shocked to hear about how well she is doing.
But she was supposed to leave us…..she was scheduled to move into a home that in my gut I felt was wrong for her. I remember sobbing in church that Sunday. God why did you give me this little girl who has all the potential in the world just to put her in another foster home that’s wrong for her? How are you just going to watch these kids suffer in the foster care system knowing that they have very little change of success? I was mad. I was hurt and I felt like no one cared about making sure these kids stay safe and become successful.
Deacon and I talked about it. We prayed about it. We talked some more. We asked the social worker for all of her siblings. We asked again, can they all move in with us. We moved to a bigger house to fit all of them. Then we asked the social work supervisor, can we move them all together? FINALLY we got approval that they were all going to move in on April 13th.
So this morning I'm drinking my second cup of coffee with a 6 year old reading over my shoulder. We are trying to prepare for the addition of 3 more into the home acknowledging that quite time will soon be a thing of the past. People ask if we are ready.....I don't know if Ready is the word for it.....but we are committed. We are called and we are willing. Pray for us.
Friday, April 13, 2012
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
We are Expecting!
Dear Family and Friends,
We are expecting! We are expecting to be foster/adoptive parents! We are just as excited about starting this as many couples are after a little “magic stick” gives them a positive sign telling them are going to be parents and giving women the excuse to eat what they want. Instead Deacon and I filled out our first foster adoption pre-application online, then we filled out an application, someone came into our home to talk to us and now we have a clinical interview that is expected to last 5 hours. It looks likes if everything goes well we will be “due”/certified in December and get to look forward to a placement of a child or children (siblings) in the months to follow.
Let me back up in our story. After a few months of dating Deacon, I (Janine) decided to hit Deacon with a test true to my heart. I told him that I was planning on adopting a child within a few years with or without him. Let’s be honest, I was basically telling the man either marry me or move on because I have big plans. Little did I know that due to his complex and beautiful family background the thought of adoption wasn’t new to him and it didn’t scare him. Since we’ve been married, we’ve talked in detail about how we plan on starting a family. God put it on our hearts very heavily that we should pursue foster/adoption before trying to have any biological children.
So the answer is YES, we do plan on attempting to have biological children in the future. We have not attempted this (only practiced) because we feel called to adopt first. We hope to be able to foster/adopt siblings under 7 years old. It is our goal to be able to love on them, wrap our lives and attention around them to give them a stable and loving environment to grow in. They will be our children just as much as any biological child we may have.
Although you have not gotten to see my belly grow, our hearts have been pregnant for a while. We expect that some nights it will be hard to sleep. We have no guarantees that any of this will turn out like we expect. We won’t have an ultrasound to tell us if everything is going well, instead we must have extra faith that this is where God wants us to be.
We hope to be able to include you on this journey. We are thankful for the amazing people in our lives who support and love on us. How lucky these children will be to have all of you in their lives! If you are wondering how you can help right now, the biggest thing we need is prayer for us and our children who are waiting to be put in our family. Your support and understanding of these changes in our lives means the world to us.
However, If you feel as if you want to do more, Deacon and I our saving for a down payment on a home and would accept your help. We would love to be able to welcome our children into a home where they can have their own rooms and a backyard to play in. We have included in this letter a link on how to contribute or watch our down payment fund grow. This letter is not intended to solicit money from our loved ones, but instead to share in our journey. However, God has laid it upon my heart to share our need so that He may be able to provide through others.
Link to follow/contribute to our progress for a down payment
https://www.smartypig.com/loves/theblairs
We go to bed every night knowing that our children are out there. They are waiting to be able to feel safe and call someone mom and dad. They are waiting on their forever family. They don’t care what kind of car we drive or if we have to stay in an apartment or get to live in a huge house. We can’t wait to be able to bring our children home. To take way too many picture of them, read to them, listen to them laugh and watch them grow. Our hearts are overdue and we know our labor will not be easy. But every child is worth it! We look forward to growing this Blair Family and sharing our journey with you.
Love
Deacon and Janine
We are expecting! We are expecting to be foster/adoptive parents! We are just as excited about starting this as many couples are after a little “magic stick” gives them a positive sign telling them are going to be parents and giving women the excuse to eat what they want. Instead Deacon and I filled out our first foster adoption pre-application online, then we filled out an application, someone came into our home to talk to us and now we have a clinical interview that is expected to last 5 hours. It looks likes if everything goes well we will be “due”/certified in December and get to look forward to a placement of a child or children (siblings) in the months to follow.
Let me back up in our story. After a few months of dating Deacon, I (Janine) decided to hit Deacon with a test true to my heart. I told him that I was planning on adopting a child within a few years with or without him. Let’s be honest, I was basically telling the man either marry me or move on because I have big plans. Little did I know that due to his complex and beautiful family background the thought of adoption wasn’t new to him and it didn’t scare him. Since we’ve been married, we’ve talked in detail about how we plan on starting a family. God put it on our hearts very heavily that we should pursue foster/adoption before trying to have any biological children.
So the answer is YES, we do plan on attempting to have biological children in the future. We have not attempted this (only practiced) because we feel called to adopt first. We hope to be able to foster/adopt siblings under 7 years old. It is our goal to be able to love on them, wrap our lives and attention around them to give them a stable and loving environment to grow in. They will be our children just as much as any biological child we may have.
Although you have not gotten to see my belly grow, our hearts have been pregnant for a while. We expect that some nights it will be hard to sleep. We have no guarantees that any of this will turn out like we expect. We won’t have an ultrasound to tell us if everything is going well, instead we must have extra faith that this is where God wants us to be.
We hope to be able to include you on this journey. We are thankful for the amazing people in our lives who support and love on us. How lucky these children will be to have all of you in their lives! If you are wondering how you can help right now, the biggest thing we need is prayer for us and our children who are waiting to be put in our family. Your support and understanding of these changes in our lives means the world to us.
However, If you feel as if you want to do more, Deacon and I our saving for a down payment on a home and would accept your help. We would love to be able to welcome our children into a home where they can have their own rooms and a backyard to play in. We have included in this letter a link on how to contribute or watch our down payment fund grow. This letter is not intended to solicit money from our loved ones, but instead to share in our journey. However, God has laid it upon my heart to share our need so that He may be able to provide through others.
Link to follow/contribute to our progress for a down payment
https://www.smartypig.com/loves/theblairs
We go to bed every night knowing that our children are out there. They are waiting to be able to feel safe and call someone mom and dad. They are waiting on their forever family. They don’t care what kind of car we drive or if we have to stay in an apartment or get to live in a huge house. We can’t wait to be able to bring our children home. To take way too many picture of them, read to them, listen to them laugh and watch them grow. Our hearts are overdue and we know our labor will not be easy. But every child is worth it! We look forward to growing this Blair Family and sharing our journey with you.
Love
Deacon and Janine
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