Not always.

Most of the time foster care sucks.

Seriously.  It does.  One step forward, two steps back.

Broken promises.
Jerky social workers.
Bad decisions.
Heart breaks.
Hurt kids.
Behaviors.

And in the middle of it are the moments that keep us in it.  The first smiles, the ridged hugs and eventually melt into cuddles, the love we have for a human we didn't even know existed 3 weeks ago, and sometimes the strangers that walk through our doors become family.


For 3 years foster care sucked for us.  We got hurt at every turn it seemed and the "smart" thing to do would have been to give up.  But those moments, those miracles, kept creeping in and kept me going even when my heart was broken in two.

We held on just long enough to see that, yes, our "PRE adoptive placement" that literally had a social worker demand that she be returned to her bios really was meant to be ours forever.      And then the miracles began to pour down on our unsuspecting heads.

Our 2nd bio was born.

Should 3 be enough?

Oh no, even the week before my c-section I found out 3 kids that I had fell in love with two years prior were finally available for adoption.  Red tape is no match for God, He certainly proved that when our 3 moved in.

And then, out of no where, we got a phone call.  The call we had hoped for from day one, but now we had six kids.  This phone call we got that would be our number 7 if we said yes, "should" have been our number 2 if our plans had gone as we wanted them to.  

Had our life gone as "planned" we would have our first bio and our first foster.

The end.

I can't imagine what I would be missing out on.  I shutter to think.

Because, numbers 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6....the are amazing.  Life would not be the same without them.

It took my heart being broken to get them.

It took tears, frustration and a plan that was the complete opposite of mine to get them.

The Lord gives and the Lord takes away.

But, I believe, He gives more than He takes away.
And when His blessing rain down...well, it has been a down pour.

Never give up.  That is what I have learned.  Never give up on the plan God has for you.