Around my birthday, October 8th, in the year 2004, I was driving down the long Interstate 80 from Laramie, Wy to Arnold, Ne. It was a beautiful night, a sky so full of stars a person could not help but notice them. As my gaze drifted upward...so did my prayers. "Lord, do you know how I long to be a mom?" My prayers continued as I explored the somewhat "hopeless" situation. I knew there was a certain chain of events that needed to take place in order for that prayer to be answered and nothing seemed to be putting those chain of events into motion. I wondered if my prayer would forever leave me wanting. As I contemplated these things, my longings, my prayers and the stars, I could not help but think of the story with Abraham being told his descendants would outnumber the stars in the sky. An elderly, childless Abraham surely was tempted even more so than I to fall prey to doubt.
An exit sign interrupted my thoughts. Time to cancel the cruise control and get on with life...
A couple weeks after that I sat across from a cousin of mine, listening to her tell the story of their fostering and eventually adopting several children. I was enthralled with the story and listened intently to each detail spoken through both tears and laughter of a mother's heart that had been both broken and blessed through the process. I was so intrigued. If only I were married...
Another couple weeks went by and I told my sister about my time with our cousin. She told me how she had just been talking to someone who told her single women often could afford more time, emotional energy and attention for fostering children. I listened to the things she said with a stirring in my heart.
Finally, around the first part of December, I was thumbing through the Arnold Sentinel, a fascinating piece of literature I rarely take the time to enjoy. On this particular occasion, I happened to notice the classifieds which included this ad: Foster Parents in Arnold, Ne, desperately needed. I had never seen this ad before this day nor have I seen it since.
"Ok, God, I will look into it." I said. And indeed, I did...eventually.
Very close to that same time, a 16 year old girl, growing up in another world with no connection to mine, became pregnant. In 2005 she had a son. She married the father to her son and 18 months later, in 2007, she had another son. Soon after, she divorced her first husband, realized she was again pregnant and married the father of that child. In 2008, not long after her second marriage began, 19 months after her second son was born, she had a beautiful baby girl with lots of special medical needs. The girl, her husband, and three children moved to Nebraska when the little girl was almost 6 months old. Within two weeks of moving, HHS removed the children from their parents home. They began calling prospective foster homes for placement...and I was on that list.
So on March 24th, 2009, I walked into the Great Plains Regional Hospital and met for the first time a beautiful little red headed answer to prayer who is at this very moment, one year later, hollering at me in the back ground. "Mom! Mom!"
I thank God for HIS faithfulness..HIS willingness to set forth a chain of events while I was still wondering if HE even heard me.
