F is for Foster

“Seconds. Minutes. Hours. Days. Weeks. Months. Years.

Family takes time. Family takes waiting. But, family is worth it.

Just like any family, the journey is driven by the time it takes to create and build. Our family was built around the time not only waiting for a child to be matched to our family, but the time since being matched with a foster placement. From those first moments we were placed we knew that we would celebrate every stage, even the ones that appeared to be less desirable.

A part of our adoption journey was welcoming a daughter through foster care.

Foster care is about recognizing early on that the process comes with people - lots of people - to support the child: caseworkers, CASA workers, therapists, psychiatrists, and the village you build to support yourself. And fostering comes with a million words and acronyms to know and learn about the people and the system and navigating being a parent without the full rights and privileges.

Foster care is a lot of attending child permanency court hearing followed up with a lot of waiting and waiting and waiting; waiting for other people to make a decision that you, as a foster parent, have very little say in.

But, what is more important and more beautiful and what people don’t talk enough about with foster care is the love that immediately enters your home and fills your heart.

It’s the connection that is built over time, the trust that starts being formed, and the family that is created day after day. Our family was created differently than most, and even though it’s been a different journey, it’s important to recognize that it’s no different in the end. Our family is forever because of a little girl who came into our home needing our love and wanting to be able to trust us. Our family is perfect because we allowed our hearts to be open to something different, but beautiful. Our family happened because God called us to open our hearts and led us down the most beautiful journey we would ever be called to."

-Dwell mom, Jessica