ADOPTION!!!

So, our big news this week is that after a year of being foster parents to Izzy (soon to be Ellie), our daughter Jennifer and her husband Tony are having their adoption hearing in 3 days!

One more day of work and then we're off to AZ for 2 days so that we can be there for the adoption and the day of celebration.  They were given this baby last year, when she was only a week old.  Her mother was in prison when she delivered and couldn't keep her, so they brought her home and have loved her from the beginning. 

Not having children before, they were on a crash course.  You have to consider that they didn't have the usual 9 months to think about it, they had a day.  We have all been so excited to watch her grow and become the happy 1-yr-old that she is.  Although she is considered a drug baby, so far there have been no serious issues in her development. 

We are so thankful to God for giving her to our family.  We are also thankful to her mother who could have kept her after she was released from prison and seriously considered it, but ultimately performed a truly selfless act and signed away her parental rights to open the door for adoption.

There are so many children in our country who grow up believing that no one loves them.  Rick works for OC Social Services and has been dealing with these children and their families, bio and foster, for almost 11 years.  On the news, we only hear about the ones that end up in some kind of serious trouble or sustain injuries and Social Services is usually blamed.  We don't hear about the thousands of children that are saved or the famiilies that work really hard to qualify for reunification. 

Then there are the foster parents who give love to children that aren't theirs, usually knowing that it is a temporary relationship.  Jen and Tony have fostered 9 or 10 children in the last year, and had to give them up when relatives stepped up and wanted them or when the parents worked hard to meet all of the requirements for reunification.  Jennifer told me that it's the hardest thing she's ever done, but it's also the best thing she's ever done. 

I can't wait until Thursday!