Wednesday, March 07, 2012

celebrating, but sobered too

at last! our foster license was approved today, and we are currently eligible for placement. there's some serious celebrating happening in our hearts today. we started the process in mid-august, and have been working through it over the last seven months.

it was within a few hours of the final email from our licensor that we received our first placement request email. i was quite surprised. DSHS starts by emailing a list of all currently-eligible families with a summary of the situation, and we can reply if we're interested. while it would've been a crazy night, the situation sounded worth exploring, so i replied and asked if we could talk if the child was still available. within moments, my phone was ringing, a blocked number, which i knew immediately was DSHS. the placement worker told me the little boy had been placed, but that they now had a sibling set available out of our local office. we're not at all prepared for a sibling set, but i asked a few of my questions anyway, and told them to contact us if they couldn't find another place for the kids.

as i drove home from the office today, i reflected on this conversation. surely there is celebrating in our home tonight, but my heart is sobered too. that was a real conversation. with real kids. a real family. real moms and dads with real problems. and real kids with real pain and trauma. suddenly, this isn't just an idea or a theory or a dream anymore. it's become very real. and it will only get more real. so while we celebrate the end of the challenging beginning, i am sobered by the realities of the next chapter, and reminded of the vision God has given us for this journey. our hearts are for hurting kids.

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