back to blogging

For those of you who have been checking and checking and checking my blog over the past several months only to see that I had apparently fallen off the face of the earth, thank you for your persistence. I'm not all together sure why I took a hiatus - maybe just needed some anonymity to my thoughts - but I hope to be back more regularly now.
The past couple months have been busy for us, not only in terms of the holidays, but because we have been pursuing licensing as foster parents. Our hope - to foster an infant or toddler whose parents have or will have their rights terminated and then pursue adoption. We have by no means ruled out trying invitro again and in fact had planned to try again in January. However, as it got closer, it just wasn't sitting well in my heart. After a hard, teary conversation, we decided to put that aside for now and see where this road leads us. I am so thankful to God for that sense of discontent that He sometimes uses to steer us. We first started inquiring about this possible avenue for starting a family back in November. At the recommendation of the licensing worker from the Dept of Human Services, we enrolled in and completed several weekends of training called PRIDE training. A Foster Parenting 101 so to speak. We finished the course right before Christmas and met with Chris, the DHS licensing worker, to start the application process. It has all just seemed to fall into place with a comfortable ease. God seems to be just quietly opening little doors and asking us to go through them. With a bit of trepidation we have chosen to do just that. He opens, we follow....... He opens, we follow..... Yesterday we had our final meeting with Chris and all of our applications, questionnaires, inspections, clearances, etc, etc, have been completed and turned in. All the hoops jumped through, i's dotted and t's crossed. Now we are left to wait. He anticipates it will take around four weeks to do the paperwork shuffle between here and the state powers to be in Lansing. At that point, we will be licensed to care for up to two children, age range between 0-5. Then the real waiting begins. There is no telling how long we will wait for a child to be placed with us. Could be days, could be months or longer. The waiting is already bothersome for me so I have been trying to focus on praying for our child. I don't know who he or she is, if they have been born yet or even conceived yet, but I am praying. My prayer isn't long or fancy - just that God, in his amazing miraculous way, would place a hedge of protection around our future child and the harm that is or will be imposed on him/her. You see, kids that are in good circumstances don't get taken away. The child we receive will have experienced some type of abuse or neglect. That makes me sick but I know God is able to protect that child and bring him/her to us.
We would love your offerings of prayers to our amazing God for this situation. We have already seen prayer answered in the speed and smooth sailing that the application process has been. Average time to get licensed is 3-6 months so we set out to shoot for the 3 months and actually are on pace to be licensed in 2 months! Praise God. That just confirms my belief that He has someone out there who needs us as much as we need them.
By the way, I know there are those of you out there who are saying that I know so and so who took in a child for this length of time and tried to adopt them only to have them returned to their parents...... We know that this road is not free of potentials for heartbreak and raw disappointment. We are praying for the best and preparing for all possibilities. Right now this is where God is leading and there is peace for us in the following.
It feels good to be blogging again.
Sleep well blog watchers :) Kendra