Another dream of mine

I was always interested in adoption as a young girl – as I think many girls dreaming of being a Mum one day perhaps are.

As I got older probably in my uni days I learnt more about fostering and this was added to my faraway dream list. I wanted a big family (I have three siblings as does my husband) and a strong desire to help others.

One of my early fights with my boyfriend now husband was declaring to him I wanted 10 kids in an attempt to scare him away. He later came back to me with the model of a car we would need for such a large family.

I remember discussions with my Dad about the sustainability of large families and perhaps the reality of life began influencing me too and I revised my planned family size to six. I spoke about this in a speech at my engagement party and one of my Grandmas-to-be came and told me she had wanted ten children and ended up with six 🙂

A few years later I joined the Mummy world and learnt more about the difficulties of the adoption process and the need for foster carers. It was still something I wanted to do but whether it was a pipe dream or not I had no idea.

After my son was stillborn in 2011 our family planning was revised again ( I wrote about this in another post Genetics  https://geejenmotw.wordpress.com/2015/08/02/genetics/) and my husband and I together discussed adoption and fostering, it no longer felt like a pipe dream. Although we went on to have another baby, I still felt that part of God’s purpose in blessing us with Harry (my son in heaven) was to help push us in the direction of fostering. Unfortunately my husband is not yet on board, I don’t know if he ever will be. Whenever I see ads on TV or read about fostering my heart strings tug.

This year though I’m excited to share we are taking on a boarder, at least for a trial in Term 1. I don’t  know much yet about her situation. She advertised in our church bulletin and comes from a more rural location than us. She has come to our area for her final years of high school.

We really have no idea what to expect. I am keen for some help entertaining the kids and perhaps transporting them but must be aware she is not a live-in nanny but a paying boarder. It will be interesting to see how she fits into our family, if she survives my cooking! I’m excited that it means we have to clean up the house and clear out some rooms and I’m hoping it could be a stepping stone towards becoming foster parents.

Who knows what God has in store for us…