One thing about our life is that it's a huge rollercoaster ride, and during the summer of 2011 we flew through the peaks, turns, and valleys of trying to adopt through the Dept. of Human Services (DHS).
The outcome of that wild ride left us injured and wounded with a distrust toward DHS and the entire process.
After everything we'd gone through, we elected to allow our certification to expire and our hearts to heal a bit. We held suppressed hope for a little one in the future, but we didn't know how it would come about. Until one day...
I was asked if we'd consider working with DHS with the foster care placement (hopefully adopt) of a brand new baby girl. A bit stunned, I said "most likely, yes" but I still hadn't asked Cheryl. As any married guy knows, you don't commit to small decisions, let alone life changing decisions, without the wife fully engaged.
When Cheryl finished teaching her Zumba classes, I presented the question to her by phone. The resulting silence apparently was her jaw falling to the floor. After Cheryl picked her jaw off the floor from the shock, we agreed to patiently pursue the possibility of parenting through the DHS system again.
The baby's sister is being adopted by longtime friends of the family, who contacted us (through my sister) about the newest little bundle of happiness and poo. Of course, the hope and prayer is that we will be positioned to adopt her when the time is right.
We met the baby for the first time when she was just three days old. We held her, fed her, and adored her... then she pooped, just for Cheryl. Ahhh, the wonderful sound of instant diaper loading! Cheryl didn't miss the opportunity to take care of the little mess, beginning years and years of dookie duty (hopefully).
Before little baby cakes can stay with us, our certification through DHS needed to be renewed. After all the work we did to get ready for the holiday party's, we were pretty comfortable that any death traps have been successfully resolved. As far as I know, all of the guests from the party's survived... As far as I know.
More to come... A lifetime, really!
