A friend of mine suggested that maybe I could write on the blog about our fostering/adoption adventure to keep everyone updated; but also to inform people about what the process looks like, what it takes to get started etc. Perhaps this would help people not be scared of the whole idea and consider it for their own families. I totally agree with her! I think this is a great way not only to inform....but for me; putting my thoughts down in writing is often revealing and clarifies things go'in on upstairs ;) So stay tuned for each step up of the way and a few thoughts from Brad and I as we walk this adventure together...I have the best walking partner by the way! Here goes noth'in.....
HOW DID THIS WHOLE IDEA OF ADOPTION/FOSTERING START? Wellllllll...for years and years Brad and I have always thought that the idea of adoption was interesting and something we would like to pursue eventually. But that being said never thought about it much lately because we are in the middle of raising our family. We felt very content with our family just the way it is. Quite frankly, 3 kids keep us pretty busy...their activities, our activities, work, play, volunteering etc. Sometimes it just feels like we yearn to stay home for an entire day/evening and chillax with the family. We often brag about starting out having kids while we were young and will benefit from that when we are in our forties. Empty nesters.....time to travel, and adventure together while we're still 'young'....sounds good right? That's all fine and dandy until you feel some prompting in your heart.
One day, in the fall of 2010 I was enjoying a discussion with some wonderful ladies at bible study. We were talking about all the good causes we could help....needs in Africa; needs in Cambodia to help young girls stay off the streets and to not be bought to come and prostitute here in North America by sleezeball 'businessmen'. (don't EVEN get me started!!) And somewhere in our discussion one wise woman (same girl who prompted me to write:) simply asked the question: "what about the needs in our own backyard??" What about the poor here in Kamloops? What about the kids who go to school hungry in the morning who sit beside my own kids at school? What about the child longing to go to school to get away from verbal and physical abuse on a daily basis? I could go on and on. The needs in our cities are enormous....so I found myself asking "Why don't we take care of people in our own city? why have we looked beyond our 'backyard'?"
This got me thinking. Adoption came quickly to my mind and soon engulfed my heart. I kept quiet for about 2 months just continuing to think about it and pray. I didn't bring it up to Brad yet because I didn't want to scare him with my crazy thoughts! Because seriously, reality is that we don't need any more kids! Our plates are full! right? LOL
So December was soon approaching....driving around the city running errands, dropping and picking kids up, shopping for Christmas; I spent alot of time in the car listening to the radio. I kept hearing one radio advertisement for the Dave Thomas foundation for adoption over and over and over. It seemed like every time I turned on the radio; I would hear that familiar voice. I took note of the website and one day decided to look it up and see what this foundation was all about. I left it there, thinking to myself that when I had some more time I would sit down and investigate a little bit more.
A few weeks later over our Christmas holidays; Brad was on facebook and came across an interesting article that a friend of ours posted from CNN. While I was doing my hair one morning; he came to me and said "You have to read this article; it's very interesting". So I asked him if he could read it to me while I was getting ready...cuz let's face it; I don't 'wait' very well and I was now extremely curious! I am posting the article below for you to read as well. This article was one of the key things that made us think God was trying to tell us something......
http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/12/23/my-take-why-my-church-rebelled-against-the-american-dream/
Over the holidays it seemed again like everywhere we turned there was either a special on t.v. regarding adoption.....or another on the radio. I began to look into what was involved exactly with adopting in BC. We were giggling to ourselves because it seemed so CRAZY; yet just. so. RIGHT. to pursue this thought further.
At this point adoption was forefront on our minds. We liked the 'permanence' of it for our family....but a wise friend said to me..." don't rule out fostering all the way yet; just think about it....because if a child can come into your home and be a part of your family if only for 3 months. That just might be the best 3 months of their lives and it could be something that changes them forever." Oh boy. How could I disregard fostering so easily when she says something like that?
So to make a loooong story a tiny bit shorter! heeheehee.....after discussing adoption with our boys, they weren't particularly comfortable with the permanence of it. They were having a hard time grasping the idea that a child (not necessarily a baby) would just come and be a Friesen just like that. But for some reason, they could see the need much easier with fostering. So we decided to look into both. I contacted Interior Community Services to find out what our first step would be to both fostering and adopting within BC. We were quickly signed up for an 18 hour information session that would help us make some decisions.
I will go into a few details of this on my next post.....thanks for reading! Stay tuned for a bit more of our craziness!
Signed: An extremely blessed woman, wife, mom, child of God who's heart grows increasingly bigger each and every day anticipating the meeting of our next child.
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