New Here

Hi guys: I have been lurking for a few days, and decided to register so I could network and get to know everyone. I thought I would introduce myself. I am happily married and have two biological daughters, ages 13 and 9. My 9 yr old is a "special" child with Down Syndrome. We made the decision to become foster parents in October after hearing a message about it at church one Sunday. We started the licensing process with a private agency on Nov. 6. We completed every single bit of our training and homestudy in 6 weeks. We were told that was officially the fastest they had ever went through the process with someone...LOL. All I can say, is when God has a plan, the doors fly open. Anyway, due to Christmas holidays, the Homestudy didnt receive it's final approval and we become officially licensed until January 31. We were supposed to receive a sibling group that same evening that we received our license, however 2 hours before they were due to arrive, we were told a grandmother had decided to take them. We were very disappointed, but fully expected that we would have another placement immediately. A little bit about that....as we were going through the process, one of the reasons why everything was done so fast was because we were told over and over that there was a HUGE need for foster parents. Not only that, but we were called twice for respite care during the time we were waiting for our homestudy to be approved. We ended up not getting them either time, but I tell this to just give explanation as to why we firmly believed the minute we were licensed there would just be a line of kids at our front door waiting for us to choose from...HAHA. Anyway, as I said, we went through the whole licensing process in 6 weeks, got our license on January 31 with the plan that we were receiving kids the same day only to have that fall through and then NOTHING. Talk about discouraged and questioning God. I kept thinking through the whole process that God had kids just waiting for us which is why everything went so fast. Fortunately, God does know best, and He sped things up then halted them for a reason. On February 27, my husbands father had a massive heart attack and passed away unexpectedly. My husband had just been on the phone with him 5 minutes prior. He took it extremely hard. However, God had His plan in place long before, and the day after my father in law passed away, we received a call for a placement of 3 siblings. At first I was hesitant, and didn't know if my hubby would be ready, and might need time before we accepted a placement, but he said, NO, he was ready. So one week to they day after we buried his dad, we took in 3 precious kiddos, ages 1, 3 and 4! I would like to say, "and we all lived happily ever after" but it hasn't quite come to that. It has been a HUGE adjustment. I am thrilled to have a baby, but three kids under the age of 5 has been a challenge. Especially with my own daughter who has DS. She is one who conforms to what she is around, so if she is around older kids, she behaves older, so if she is around 3 and 4 yr olds....well, you get my drift. Honestly the first two weeks I wanted to throw in the towel. I cried, I questioned, I got angry, I lost my patience and I asked over and over, WTH am I doing? But prayer warriors have surrounded our family, and a month later, it is slowly getting better. We still have the temper tantrums, the screams, but we also are having the adjustments, the meshing, the "i love you's", and the good days are starting to overtake the bad. And the best thing is, when there IS a bad day, I don't want to send them back as I did before. I/WE can't do this. But we CAN do ALL things through Christ who gives us the strength. I don't give up because I know He designed this plan for us, and if the devil is going to work overtime to try and make me give up, then the blessing that is sure to come to not only us, but those kids, must be great. I look forward to getting to know everyone and reading your stories!