Who I might have been Part 2

Please forgive my delay in posting part 2. We had another death in the family this week. I really do expect the house to come crashing down at any moment now. My husband's mother passed away suddenly and unexpectedly Monday morning. We have been down with his dad the past few days just spending time. Through everything I still say Blessed Be the Name. I am amazed at the amount of strength God has given me through this season. It just makes me want to serve Him and praise Him even more. Even on days when I just want to crawl into bed and pull the covers over my head until 2010. :)
When we left off Roy and I were beginning to look into fostercare as a way to start our family. We took the classes filled out all the paperwork and waited a year and a half for them to complete our file. Agency changes, new regulations, loss of fingerprints. Everyday there was another reason our file had not been approved yet. I was getting more and more frustrated. Especially because DCF choose at this time to start a campaign to get more foster parents. Every where I turned there were impassioned pleas for one to open their home for these children. I was fingerprinted five times because of errors and time lapses. I was pretty sure I was getting ready to be called into Secret Service to protect the President. I know I had the clearance for it. In December of 2003 Roy and I looked at each other and said that it was time for me to come home from work. It was a very difficult decision for him to make. We'd bought a house earlier that year using both our incomes. We were already living above our financial means. It meant a lot of sudden changes in both of our lives.

Those first few months, nay years, of my being home were rough. On paper it never should have worked. But we were able to pay most of our bills. Barely. Sometimes even on time. :) And when one of our creditors came after us with a lawsuit the money was provided for us to actually settle the debt owed. It was a bill we were sending money to, but not the minimum payment every month. We tried to communicate with the people over the phone a few times and were treated very rudely. It's not an excuse for not paying them, but the money was not all there to pay them and they refused to communicate with us. We sent them what we could. We were not very good money managers at the time. We are still learning, but I will say we have not been in that situation again. Lesson learned. :)

In May we finally got our foster care license. The next day I got a phone call for a 6 month old baby girl. OF course we would love to take her in. I naively began to prepare for a 6 month old baby girl.

Imagine my surprise when this guy showed up at my door. 13 months old and running around like a mad man. LOL Thus began our foster care experience. As the children came the money began to increase. Within about a year we were at a place where we could pay off our debt, keep up with payments due, and all around just live comfortably. In 2006 our fostercare journey was put on hold as we adopted our five beautiful blessings. All in all foster care was not the traumatic experience for us that it is for some. In my home I have nine children. I kept five and sent four home. Unfortunately all four came back into care within a year of being home. Had I had the room I would have taken them all back.

I dealt with the public school system for one year. On the day of our adoption we went from the courthouse to the school board and thus began our homeschooling journey.

I have learned so much in the past few years. I am so thankful for people on the Internet willing to put themselves out there and show Biblical Womanhood. I have been on the other side of this and I can safely say I am much happier being a wife, mommy, and homemaker, than at any other time in my life. I did the career thing. Too much drama and worldliness for me. I did the public school thing. Too much time away from my kids, too many bad influences I had to overcome at home, too much disinformation being fed to my littles. No thank you. I am grateful that God put women into my life mostly through the Internet, but also a few real lifers to show me a different way.

I am quiet content to stay right here in my own little home and raise my little children. If you'd of told me that at 18 I would have laughed at you.

Thank you Lord for making it different for me.

Be Blessed!