Starting a family is oftentimes your next thought after getting married. A year after being married and not getting pregnant, my husband at the time and I, decided to try IVF( In Vitro Fertilization). We were not successful and it devastated us. It took a couple of years before we decided to try adoption. We left no stone unturned and investigated the process of Foster Care to Adoption as well as private adoption. Private adoption was extremely expensive and out of our reach, so we elected to go the route of Foster Care. We registered and took the classes to become certified. We learned that the Foster Care program is not for the weak and may challenge your decision, however, don ' t give up. Our first placement was with a beautiful baby boy only days old; I was in love. We just knew he was ours, I had taken the customary six weeks off to bond with him and was so happy until I got the call that the biological mother was ready to be reunited with him. My world turned upside down, how could this be? Did we hear wrong from God? I was angry and I cried until I could cry no more. There was nothing anyone could say or do to make it better. I felt this was a cruel joke and God didn’ t care. I soon realized, the ugly truth about foster care; there’ s more children needing placements, than there are homes and this baby needed a temporary home.

Faith is an action word and we rarely fully understand God’ s plans but when He finally reveals them, it is awe-striking. Just a few months later, after my heart had healed some, I was away for a girls trip when I received a call from my then husband, telling me that a grandmother he knew contacted him and asked would we take custody of her eight month old grandson because the State was going to remove him due to her failing health. In shock, I excitedly said yes. The social worker asked to speak to me so that she could give me instructions on how to register for the foster care program. I told her, we are already in the system. She couldn’ t believe it but once she checked, we were picking him up from his grandmother’ s house that very evening for a trial visit. I was excited and afraid at the same time. Every day as I looked at this beautiful pudgy brown baby boy, I had to thank God.

Three to four months later, we received another call and was told that the mother was pregnant again, would we take that baby boy too. I told them that it was too soon after all, I was just learning how to be a mom. When I tell you, God has a plan; the baby was born two months later. The case worker came over one night to do a check-in on our baby boy. In her arms she had a car seat carrying this baby boy who was just days old, banking that she would not be returning him. I took one look and fell in love all over again. He became ours the moment she brought him in.

were blessed that they have the same biological mother and father as well as other siblings that they know. Those two boys look just like me and my family and have been received by everyone as nothing less than family. When we started this journey, I wondered if I could love them as my own. I am here to tell you, I could not love them any more if I had given birth to them. Even though I am divorced from their adoptive father, we have maintained an awesome co-parent relationship. They are my Heart Beats, my Sons; my Gifts from God.

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