"Chance" Meetings.

It still amazes me all the chance meetings we have had with adoptive parents since we started our adoption journey. This weekend we went to a friend’s birthday party and were introduced to the adoptive parents of an outgoing, friendly, loving, handsome and precious seven year old boy. The parents are wonderful people and were happy to share their story. The boy was adopted at 3 years old from the foster care system and this was his 15th placement! The parents had talked about adoption before, but never really started the process. The child’s parental rights had already been terminated and the child was available for adoption. Within one month, the boy was already in their home and the adoption was completed within six months. The mom shared that God in His infinite wisdom made the process go so fast, because she may have started second guessing herself if the process was longer. She knows without a doubt that God intended for the little boy to be their son. The downside to the speed of the process was because they got licensed right away and did not take any pre-adoptive classes. They were totally swimming on their own. When they were in crisis mode, their social worker only gave them a list of people to call, but in true “child welfare agency” form, no-one would ever return their calls. This has always been our major concern in adopting from the foster system: no-one seems to ever talk about post-adoption services. It appears that you jump hoops to get licensed to adopt, but once the child is in your home, you are on your own. I am not sure what the rational is, because it seems logical to expect that child adopted from the foster care system are more likely than not to present special challenges considering their history of abuse, neglect and multiple placements.

God has blessed them with really supportive family and they shared they have been a life saver. After such a traumatic start, the little boy has major issues, which has totally transformed this family’s lives. However, I have never seen such love and commitment as I saw on the parents’ faces when talking to us about their son. After a four year journey of heartbreak and totally feeling like the only one going through this, she feels they are making a breakthrough. Her son is in a school that is equipped to meet his needs, and they no longer get daily calls to pick him up from school. He is starting to become attached to them and they are also amazed at the love and compassion their older son has for his little brother.

The family generously offered to keep in touch and be a resource to us once we have our child/ren home. I am amazed at how God is orchestrating things and putting people in our lives who are either walking our walk or who have been there and have a wealth of information and are a great resource.