Change is near...

I'm sitting here at our computer, waiting to go to church, still incredibly energized from what we did yesterday and the dreams I had last night. I have SOOO much to share and I tend to get a little long winded in my posts, so I'll try not to babble too much, lol ;), but I'm not making any promises!

This past week we completed class #8 of 10. The fact that we have only 2 more classes to go is both very exciting and nerve wracking. Especially since we made a decision a few weeks ago that will forever change our lives - we are going to be foster care parents. Originally when we started this process, our intentions were not to foster any child that we would not be able to adopt. In fact, even when we had our first in home consultation back in May, we told our caseworkers that we were only interested in taking in children who's parental rights had already been terminated and who we could legally adopt. But then something changed. I don't know when it happened, and I don't think it was any one particular thing that changed our minds, but after that consultation Jeremy and I started having more conversations about fostering children who would very likely be reunified with their biological families. We analyzed the pros and cons of being foster parents, and it didn't take us long to decide that that was the right choice for us. We of course still want to adopt a child of our own and still have every intention of doing so, but we also will be parents to many children who are in need of a stable, loving home while their parents work on getting their lives back in order so they can be reunified with their children.

Because we have decided to be foster parents, having children in our home sooner rather than later is eminent. Once we have finished our last 2 classes (they wrap up on June 20, 2012), we will have one more in-home consultation and a final consultation in our caseworkers' office. Then we will be licensed foster parents, and the phone could ring at anytime asking us to take a child into our home. Because of that, our home needs to be ready for a child to come into it at ANY moment of ANY day. That means that our spare bedrooms that have previously had closets filled with my extra clothes, luggage, and lots of other junk have to be empty so that a child can have their own space for their belongings (and really we wouldn't have it any other way). Although we have had one bedroom that, aside from the closet, has been sitting empty since we moved to Vegas (let's just say I thought ahead, lol), the other bedroom has been Jeremy's workout room and the room for all the cat toys/stuff. So yesterday we buckled down and cleaned out both closets in the bedrooms and found new places for all the items in the second, previously filled spare bedroom. It was completely energizing to be doing something that makes us being parents - even if only to children for short periods of time - such a reality in the very near future.

This week we will begin the hunt for furniture, which is a daunting task considering we have no idea the ages of the children we will have in our home. We have told our caseworkers that we are willing to take in children ages 0-13, so that makes it a little bit of a challenge to figure out the bed situation. We are hoping to be licensed for 3 beds - which means we can have 3 children in our home at a time - so we are currently thinking about getting bunk beds that separate into 2 twin beds, and a convertible crib that can become a toddler bed. Once we have the furniture, I'm going out shopping for bedding and decorations, and I can hardly wait!! It makes me want to cry tears of joy just to think about picking out children's bedding/decorations at the store. I've dreamed about decorating a child's room for years, and now that dream is finally becoming a reality.

Last night I dreamt about being a foster parent, and although I can't remember any details of the dream(s) I had regarding the subject, I can still feel the immense love in my heart the dream invoked in me. We know we are about to take on an incredibly challenging, daunting task, but we are ready to make a difference in the lives of children who so desperately need the love we have to offer, and we know our lives will be forever changed for the better for doing so.