Secret Revealed

I've been keeping something from my loyal blog readers.  I can hold it in no longer.  Scott and I began foster care and adoption classes last week.  In North Carolina, MAPP (Model Approach to Partnerships in Parenting) classes are required when you are interested in starting the process of fostering or adopting foster children within the system.  As many of you know, foster children and adoption have tugged at my heart for years.  I did a lot of research for a couple of months and found that adopting from another country, or even domestically, would cost more than we have right now.  I read an article in the paper around Christmas time.  It was short and sweet.  Basically, the writer was encouraging people in our area to consider adopting children from Durham that need homes.  My heart melted and I began gathering information from our Department of Social Services.  There is minimal cost when adopting from the system.  Currently there are over 230 kids in Durham in the foster care system.  After talking with Scott about this for many months, we decided to sign up for these classes to take a step forward and see how devoted we truly are to this.  Whether we choose to foster a child or adopt one, the process is very complicated and warrants a lot of thought and consideration.  So far, the classes have been wonderful.  Our instructors/social workers present information about the process of fostering children and adopting them in a way that I can truly understand, and there is always much to grapple with.  Our classes last for 5 weeks.  We go twice a week.  In planning for this, I asked many of our Durham friends to help out with watching our four kids.  We have been so blessed to have them come to our home on Tuesdays and Thursdays to love on our children.  

Scott and I just returned from our fourth class.  My head and heart are full.  I am grateful for social workers.  I am thankful for their role in our city.  They are special people that do a tough job.  I really enjoy our classes.  They are full of everything that I wanted them to be.  The information that we are learning is challenging me.  I am extremely thankful for Scott and his willingness to support me in pursuing foster care and adoption.  He is totally on board and has affirmed me so well in my desire to find out all I can.  It is neat to have lead the way into this.  Scott has shown so much love as he has listened to my heart and heard about my passionate desire to love on a child that needs a home.   

I will keep you all posted about our experience on this journey.  I am sure there will be a lot to share along the way.