I’ll never forget the day I saw them for the first time. A friend shared a photolisting on Facebook of a sibling group she had fostered months before but had to disrupt placement on. She shared how she still loved them and wished they would get a family that loved them.
My husband and I had just finalized adoption on our three kids only six months prior, and we weren’t looking to adopt again so soon. However looking at their picture, and putting faces to real little people who were in need of a family stirred something inside me. These babies, only two and three, were already out of the age window of what many families want to adopt. They needed a family to love them and nurture them. Could we be that family?
My husband and I were an inactive foster family, having put our license on hold after we finalized adoption on our other kiddos. We still had an active home study. That made the next part of the process so much easier.
After discussing it thoroughly with each other, we emailed our agency and asked if they could submit our home study for that sibling group. We didn’t think we would be selected, for a laundry list of reasons, but we figured we should at least try.
Every day or two I’d look up their listing to see if it had changed. It hadn’t. The beautiful blue, solemn eyes of my now daughters stared out at me and connected with my heart. I found myself longing to brush their long, strawberry blonde hair, kiss their sweet cheeks, and hold their dear little bodies on my lap. I wondered how they were doing and if they had a family yet. Were they happy? So many questions.
Several months after submitting our home study, we received an email from the girls’ caseworker listing some of the children’s more negative behaviors. They asked if we’re still interested. After a family conference, we decided we still were if the placing caseworker was interested in us. Several emails and a meeting with caseworkers later we found ourselves face-to-face with the little girls from that first picture. It was love at first meeting.
Happily, we finalized the adoption of our girls in December of 2017. I am so glad we saw their picture that day. While our days are busier than they used to be, and we are still adjusting to new behaviors, it is clear that these girls were meant to be our family.
