Our Journey Through Foster Care

I received a phone call that left me speechless.  We had believed that there would never be an opportunity for us, but God had made it so.  The social worker on the other end said, “Jesse* is up for adoption.  Not a single member of his family wants him.  Do you?” 

My heart was beating wildly, tears were streaming down my face, and my mouth was hanging open and all I could think was, “Is this for real?”  Then fear struck me as I realized that we might not be able to take Jesse as we were adopting Jason.  I reminded the social worker of this and her reply was, “Jason* will be a good brother for Jesse.” 

I called my husband, not sure he would agree.  He loved Jesse, but was he ready to adopt two boys instead of one?  He agreed to go to a meeting to discuss it.  At the meeting Jesse crawled over to me and looked up at me with huge brown eyes.  I scooped him up and loved on him through the entire hour.  My husband and I had some concerns.  Jesse was still medically fragile; they were now talking about inserting a feeding tube. We had just learned that my husband would be leaving the military.  He had a job lined up, but insurance was going to be a problem for several months.  We weren’t sure we could afford all of Jesse’s medical bills.  The social workers immediately replied that all of Jesse’s medical bills would be taken care of until he was 18 per the adoption agreement. 

My husband and I went home our hearts filled with Jesse, and our minds filled with should we adopt Jesse too?  After prayer and discussion, we knew that we had too.  This was after much opposition by family members.  They felt that we would be trapped forever with a disabled child.  That we should let some other family adopt him.  We weren’t sure anyone else would.  His extensive family hadn’t wanted him and he had a great many medical problems. We loved him; we wanted him, why shouldn’t we adopt him? 

So, a year after Jesse left us, and after his second birthday, Jesse came back home. We were able to get him to eat solids and he gained weight so he didn’t have to have the feeding tube.  Jason was thrilled to have a playmate; the girls were ecstatic to have Jesse back.  We were a full house but not yet an official family.  How much longer would we have to wait for the adoption to take place?

*Not their real names.

Tia Linschied is the mother of four beautiful children, two of which are adopted foster children.  Tia enjoys writing about her family, homeschooling, and her experiences as a foster and adoptive parent.