Foster Diaries: The Return of Baby Boy

Well dear readers, it seems that life is bringing me full circle again. Many of you may also watch us on YouTube, and if so...you know that there is a new addition coming to our home. Way back in February of this year I  blogged about a little boy who was placed with us that I had dubbed "baby boy" since we can not put him in print or video. On the first day he came to be with us he had two ear infections and a whole lot of fear and neglect issues and so he cried every night....for hours. At that time, it made me wonder whether I had the chops to handle being a foster parent. But as time went on, his medical issues cleared up and became the cutest little baby I ever could have imagined. Sadly though, the time came when social services found a family member willing to care for Baby Boy while his mom could go through drug treatment and the family reunification process. We were sad...but we also knew that this would be a part of emergency foster care and we thought it was good that he would be with family......And so Baby Boy left our home to whatever the future would hold for him. All of us shed a few tears as we said our good buys.

Except....that the future that he went to wasn't as bright as we had hoped and it seems that Baby Boy is returning to our home today....

Foster Diaries....Echoes of the past

Well dear readers...due to issues with blogger I was not going to post today but sometimes things happen in our lives that are too big to keep inside ourselves and this blog has become part confessional for me in addition to being a vehicle for marriage equality....

As many of you know. My husband Jay and I have decided to be full time foster parents. It was not something we planned to do in life...it just developed in the natural course of events. Being a foster parent can be a very rewarding experience however it also comes with some challenges. Many of the kids you will care for will melt your heart and break it all in the same moment and sometimes the pain they feel will bump up against your own pain and the memories of things that happened so long ago you didn't think it could ever reach out to hurt you again. But if you are a thinking and feeling human being you can't help but go with kids down the sometimes painful road that they are forced to walk. This is what happened to me this morning...

The Long Road Home

Hello everyone,

Way back when Jay and I did our first video for National Adoption Day I asked for anyone who had an adoption story they would like to share to please send it to us. the response was not exactly overwhelming. it seems that most people are reluctant to share their personal lives on the internet...hmmm...go figure.

But what we DID get was enough to blow me away. Here...reprinted with the permission of the author...is the story of James and Chip and how they adopted their son, a little boy who has seen entirely too much hardship and sadness for his years. Its hard to believe that anything so horrible could happen to one so young...but it does...everyday. Also this families story underscores something I found to be true from my own experience, that their is a strong element of fate/divine guidance in the process of building a family. Somehow, the right kids find the right parents through some very uncertain paths......but please stick through to the end because it does have a happy ending...