It has begun.
Our lives are, as they should be, filled with adventure. We may not ever become the family whose adventures take them around the globe. Our adventures may not even take us out of the country. What I can assure you, is that the adventures we take, big or small, will have an impact on us as humans, as friends, and as a family. Now is the time for a new (scary, exciting, and emotional) adventure.
Over the years, we have talked about whether we should have or if we would want another kid. Before we got married, we had talked about it several times. He wanted three kids, I wanted one. Our compromise was two. After the boy though, I kind of went back on my word. Oh come on, don't give me a hard time about it. I didn't expect it to happen! When they say a baby changes everything, they don't really explain what that means. It changed my mind about wanting another baby right away, that's for sure. It takes a toll on you - mentally and physically. I didn't totally go back on my word anyway, I just put it off. We tried for another one later, it just didn't stick.
During those talks so many years ago, we discussed adopting and we were both completely for it. Now that Lars is 4 we have decided it is time. And, as luck would have it, he has been asking for a brother. Or a sister. Depending on the day. When I was his age, I wanted a kangaroo so we are ahead of the curve with this one. So, as we do with so many things, we started researching and planning and thinking - overdoing all of it.
I got an email from Chris one day while I was at work. He was at a show in Philadelphia when he received an email from his HR department asking for ideas / nominations for charities and he wanted my opinion (wait, what? Really...MINE?). His awesome company picks one each year and focus on it for fundraising over the holidays. I did a quick search for a charity or organization for children that was local and came across one called
Jonathan's Place. They have an amazing shelter in Garland that takes in abused and neglected kids. Oddly enough, they also have a foster to adopt program, well, lookie there. Sometimes you just get that strong urge to finally just DO IT ALREADY. I sent the info to Chris and added that I was going to call them to talk about their adopting program. I made the call, scheduled our orientation and BAM. We were in.
Orientation was so uplifting. It really didn't teach us a whole lot, I mean they went over the organization and the requirements and all but the best part was just that feeling of...they need us. These kids need someone, us, to just love them and teach them that they can be loved. We can do that. For all of the struggles that it will undoubtedly bring, and all of the emotional turmoil we will most likely get into for one reason or another, our job in this is to teach any kid we get, permanent or not, that they are worth being loved and that there are people that will love them. These poor kids have not had that before. We can do that.
We are SO excited to do that!! Don't get me wrong, we are still scared and worried but much more excited than either of those. The good we can do far outweighs the bad that could happen.
I will keep you posted, no doubt.
