Twists, Turns, and New Starts: Part 1

The past two weeks have been a whirlwind of emotions, hard choices, and great rewards.

As I said in my last video blog, we were faced with the opportunity to take in a sibling group of 4 little ones. We went to meet them and fell in love. The DHS worker wanted us to take the two babies that night, sight unseen, but we did not feel comfortable with that arrangement. For one, we had to talk to Rachel about it. This is her house too, after all. So we told the worker that we needed a couple of days to think and pray about it, then we would make our decision. It would be a major life change, taking on four, especially four so young (6 months, 2, 4, and 6), but we had one question nagging at our hearts that just wouldn’t go away: If not us, then who?

So we prayed about it for two days, and then we took the leap of faith and said “Yes!” We made the decision as a family; Rachel, Hubby, and myself all had to be in agreement, and we were. There were definite concerns, things that freaked us out completely, but in the end we knew that we had to be obedient and say what our hearts were crying, and they were crying for these kids.

So after we said yes, we waited. We waited to hear what the next step was going to be and when the kids would be coming home. We were determined to be their last foster placement, so we wanted to be as prepared as possible. We immediately started preparing our home and I put out an SOS to everyone who might care to start gathering supplies.

Oddly, there was little communication from the DHS of the county the kids currently resided in. It was days before we heard anything, and then what we heard was that the DHS worker wasn’t sure about the placement any more. She thought that we were “standoffish” at the meeting, which we found incredibly ironic, as would anyone who knows us at all. We were incredibly confused, especially after she initially tried to get us to take the kids immediately, without ever even meeting us. Anywho, our agency’s amazing foster care director was a great mediator and tried to get things figured out, but the DHS worker was being incredibly confusing on all sides.

But we kept preparing.

That next Monday I had to travel up their way to bring Bitty Babe to a doctor’s appointment, and their DHS worker thought it would be a good idea for us to meet the children again, for them to get to see us, and for us to get any questions answered, since we were told at this point that the move-in date would be that Friday. Rachel was going to be with me, so that would be a great opportunity for her to meet them. The meeting was really, really odd. We had a great time playing with the kids, but the DHS worker disappeared! When she did show back up, she wouldn’t answer any of my questions. She was being incredibly elusive, even with simple things like the kids’ clothing sizes and food preferences. I thought that maybe she just didn’t want to talk in front of the children, so I asked her if we could talk later that evening, and she said she would give me a call after she dropped the kids off.

She didn’t call.

She didn’t call the next day either, after I left her a message asking her to PLEASE give me a call back.

She never called.

What in the world was up?

Finally I got a call from our agency saying that the DHS worker had been working with a different family trying to get them to take all four, but they had 4 already and so they were working on getting them a variance, since 8 is above the state’s licensing limit. We (our agency worker included) were dumbfounded! Suddenly, the tables had totally turned. The DHS worker went from handing over the babies sight unseen, to totally changing her tune and trying to keep the kids in her county. The part that frustrated me was the unprofessionalism of leading us on, allowing us to continue to prepare for these kids, even having us come out and spend more time with them, when all the while she had another plan. Also, the lack of communication was very irritating. Why didn’t she just tell us that they were exploring other options? Why didn’t she call me back when she said she would? COMMUNICATION, PEOPLE!

Anywho, even after we were told about the new plan, we still had to wait to see if the variance would be approved for the other family. If it wasn’t approved, than we would be the only choice to keep the 4 together. So we waited. In the mean time, we knew that even if this placement didn’t work out, that the Lord had been preparing us for a reason. Whether it were just an exercise in obedience, or whether He had another child in mind that He wanted to open our hearts for, we knew that He had a plan that was bigger than any DHS worker.

Finally, this past Tuesday our agency gave us a call to tell us that the variance for other family had been approved, so we would not be getting the 4-pack, but before she even took a breath she had something else to ask us….

To be continued…..

Blessings!

Hannah