Today we planned on telling my family about our foster care plans.
After we had lunch, did the Easter thing and the kids opened their birthday presents my mom suggested that Alea give us a fashion show with all the clothes she had given her. We were going to announce our plans to them with a "Big Sister" shirt that I got for Alea. Davin thought it was mean to my family to announce it like this but I thought it would be funny. (I had a feeling my family would take the foster care news much better than Davin's family did.) I helped Alea get a few of the clothes ready and then she gave us our fashion show. After she tried on the last outfit from my mom she went back into the bedroom and put on the Big Sister shirt. I came back out into the living room to see the 'show' and Alea came out a few seconds later. She said, "Here I come!" My mom said, "I think that is all I got her, isn't it?" Alea came out into the living room wearing this Big Sister shirt. My mom said, "Awww. That's cu...WAIT? What's going on here! Big Sister?! What?!!" My sister read the shirt and said, "SHUT YOUR MOUTH!" (Gotta love living in the south.) She screamed with tears in her eyes, "Are you pregnant!?" while I was shouting, "I'm not pregnant! It's not what you think." Everyone was talking at once in a good way. My dad kept saying, "What's going on here!?" When I got them to understand that I wasn't pregnant (which really only took about 2 seconds) my sister said, "Your pregnant? Your adopting? Your fostering?" She kept guessing and when she got to fostering she was really crying hard (keep in mind I was trying to tell them the entire time everyone was yelling but no one could hear me over trying to guess or figure out what was going on). By the time they were able to listen to me say "fostering" my sister, dad, and mom were all crying. Pat was playing Legos with Reed and didn't know what was going on for about a full minute and all of this took place in about 25 seconds (he was a bit behind the times).
My sister is very happy that we are doing this. She grew up around foster care even more than I did because she played with the foster care kids and our cousins because they were the same age as her when she was a kid. She knows the need for foster care and the love the kids need. My mom and dad seemed happy and proud that we are doing this. I told them that our plans are not to adopt but that we may one day do that. They were fine with that. My mom said she would spoil all of the kids just like her other grand kids. I told them that we probably would not end up with blond haired, blue eyed kids. Both of my parents said they were fine with that. Honestly, when it comes to a reaction to this news my family reacted just like I thought they would and no future foster family going through this journey could have asked for a better response from their parents and sibling.
My sister, Pat and I talked more about it later and they seem to be very happy for us that we are going to be helping others. Bec and Pat still haven't decided if they want to have another child yet. Becky's body has been through a lot with the car wreck and having Reed. I told them not to hurry and have a baby because the perfect child for them may come through my home and they may find their child through us. Bec said she was just thinking the same thing.
God is good!
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