Our journey towards parenthood started just a few months after we got married. We always knew we wanted kids, so when we found out I was pregnant we were overjoyed. We started to talk about all the fun things like the nursery, names, the adventures we would go on as a family of three. We couldn’t wait to start this exciting new chapter.
Well just as soon as that chapter started, it ended. 9 weeks into the pregnancy I started experiencing intense abdominal pain which was then followed by bleeding, Austin rushed me to the ER. It was there that we found out we had lost our sweet baby. This was one of the hardest moments in our marriage. We were confused, heartbroken and honestly scared of ever trying for a baby again. After the miscarriage It took about a year for us to talk about having kids.
Once we started talking about trying again, we quickly found out getting pregnant wasn’t something that would come easy for me. Due to my autoimmune disease, maintaining a pregnancy was almost impossible. This news devastated us. We knew we were meant to be parents and we wanted to start growing our family now more then ever. So we decided to keep trying, we were determined to find a way. After a couple years of trying many different medications and looking into all of our options, we came to the conclusion pregnancy wasn’t going to happen for us. At least not anytime soon. Realizing this was hard, but it didn’t stop us from looking into other ways we could grow our family. We were going to find a way, we knew this was our time. We just didn’t know how quiet yet.
After we stopped trying to get pregnant we looked into adoption. Holy smokes that was overwhelming! So much information, paperwork…and money. That being said we were prepared to move forward with faith and hope everything would work out. It was actually while we were researching different agencies that we heard about foster care. We didn’t know anything about the process, so we dove in and did tons of research.
Within a few days we knew without a doubt foster care was a path we needed to take. We signed up for training and were certified within a few months! Now before you start thinking “you shouldn’t become a foster parent with the intent to adopt” let me reasure you that wasn’t our intent at all. Yes we were open to adopting if that was the best option for the child, but it wasn’t our reason behind becoming foster parents.
We said yes to foster care because we knew we had so much love to give. We wanted to share that love with those kids that so desperately need it. When we started this journey we knew it would be hard, we knew it would be emotional, and honestly we were terrified. Along with those feelings though, we were so excited. We knew we needed to open our home and be the best parents we could be to each kid that came into our home.
Saying “yes” was the best decision we could have made. Becoming foster parents has changed our life for the better. We have met so many incredible people, built amazing relationships and our eyes have been opened to a whole other world. Best of all we have been blessed with two of the most incredible foster sons. This journey has brought a whole new meaning of family to us, and we wouldn’t trade our version of family for anything.
