God is in control

WOW!!! Who knew that yesterday could have been crazier than the day before. Our sibling visit yesterday went extremely well...this was the first time that we got to visit with the older brothers. Things were good. We took them pizza and drinks and they were very friendly and wanted to know how things were with their baby sister.

These boys are only 8, 11, 14 & 16, but they are very loving toward the baby and each other. The oldest is in a foster home with 5 other children his age and doing very well, the next boy is in a treatment center because of some "behavior" problems, aka his drug addicted mother couldn't put up with him not being what he should be without her direction, and doing well. We were told yesterday that as soon as he heard the other four children were in foster care again, he started doing much better. He told me that he wants so badly to be with them. The younger two boys are together in a foster home with 3 other children. Our case worker is concerned about the boys and their level of care and they are watching them. She doesn't feel like they are progressing and she has alluded to the fact that the foster mother lies. This upsets my husband and I deeply because all the kids are very sweet and polite and we would love to take all of them, we just don't have the room to house eight children, six of them being boys.

After hearing about the younger boys, my husband and I started praying together. We really feel like the Lord has laid it on us to parent these children. After praying for a few days, we felt like He was telling us to go forward and see if we could foster them as well. Our prayer was that if this wasn't His will for us that He would close the door tight. Our first obstacle was our license. We are only licensed for two children under three. They were able to get that changed due to the fact that we have moved and have much more room than in the beginning. Our next hurdle is the 5:1 ratio. We already have 4 kids in the house including our 3 biological children and two more would put me at 6. We were told at first that this was bad news so my husband thought God had shut the door, but I had this peace come over me and I felt like the door hadn't closed. In deed it hadn't...we get a call from our case worker after the visit and she says that there may be a waiver that we can get from licensing that will allow us to keep the three younger siblings together. Our plan now, if we do get the boys, is to adopt all three of them and to stress to the older boys that we want them to be a part of our family as well. God is in control and He has a plan for all of us involved. I look forward to seeing how it all turns out.