Saturday, February 2, 2008

A Burden On My Heart That I Just Couldn't Shake....



For a few months now I have had a heavy burden on my heart that I could not get rid of no matter what I did. I have felt this tugging on my soul to explore in detail the idea of adopting a child from the foster care system. I kept thinking about all the students that passed through my doors while I was a teacher that had been failed by society and how their lives could have been so very different if only for different circumstances. The main reason that Dustin and I want to adopt is not due to infertility issues, we simply want to give a loving, stable home to a child that needs one. A family is built through love and I do not feel that I need to give birth to a child to love them from the deepest parts of me. This is what lead us to adoption in the first place.

As most of you know we had been pursuing an Ethiopian adoption for an infant girl. Today however, we went to an Orientation meeting with our local county to learn more about adopting through foster care. All I can really say is that I felt as if a huge brick had been lifted from me. I began to cry talking with the social worker about our future daughter and the path to building our family. She was wonderful and understanding about my fears and hopes with following this particular path. After a lot of questions, discussion, and research me and Dustin feel this is the path we need to follow. I do feel a bit saddened about the little girl we would have had from Ethiopia but for our family this feels right.

We are still going to request a girl 0-14months. We are open to any race and most likely will receive a presentation for a child of African American decent, meaning AA or biracial. The reason for this is that the majority of children in foster care are of AA descent in our state, one website said 51%, and since we are open we will most likely be matched with a non Caucasian child (the Caucasian children are often adopted much faster and matched more easily with other families).

I hope that as we follow this path that we retain the friendships we have acquired through our Ethiopian support group. I hope that all our children will become friends, although our daughter may not come from a foreign country she will still be in a multi racial family and experience many of the same situations as our Ethiopian counterparts.



Thank you to all of you that have and are supporting our family through this journey.

Please continue to use One Cause! It not only helps with our adoption it helps others through the National Adopt Foundation complete their own families!

15 comments:

Jess Addison said...

What an amazing blog! I'm so glad you and Dustin have found what your hearts have been looking for-and I am so excited to be a close part of your adoption journey!! Love you!!

Catherine said...

Thank you so much Jessica...we love you guys!

Julie said...

Wow. I am so impressed with you guys. That is just amazing news. S and I trained to be foster parents. In the end we weren't strong enough. I wrote about it on my blog.

Congratulations on your remarkable, important, courageous decision. I hope your little girl is home with you very soon. I will continue to follow your journey. Absolutely fantastic news!

whatever_heather said...

I am soooo happy and excited for you guys. I know how good it feels to finally make the decision you were searching for. You know I want your daughter home YESTERDAY, but I will try to be patient. Hehe.
I can't wait to watch your beautiful family grow. You are such a gift. :)
Love you!

Anonymous said...

Wow!! I am so happy that you have finally found a decision that you feel at peace with and are excited about!! And I am excited with you!
I can't wait for the whole process to happen - even though I guess I am going to have too! :(
But really I can't wait to love your little girl as much as I love ya'll!!

ErinM said...

How exciting for you to be traveling this route for your little girl! Of course you won't lose the connections, and I hope you'll still come to events. I am excited to read more about your family's journey!

--Erin

Virginia said...

Oh Catherine, this is wonderful, I am so excited for your family!! I think God brings you to your child (or your child to you:) whether by birth, or adoption, international or domestic.. All are wonderful ways to grow a family and this is the right way for you. We are so glad we have gotten to "know" you a little bit and do hope you keep up our Ethiopia group!

VA

J-Mac said...

"we simply want to give a loving, stable home to a child that needs one" What a lucky kid! Can't wait to meet Owen's baby sister!

Handlyrics said...

I am very happy for you. You are following your heart. You Rock!

Kristin said...

Congratulations on finding the path that you have been called to... I love your comment on how to build a family.... BEAUTIFUL!!!
Congratulations again!!
Kristin (popped in from Heather's blog)

Anonymous said...

I deleted your membership to the group . . . NOT! There's NO WAY we'd let you go and you better come to events and other stuff too!

Reading this post actually made me want to know more of you MORE!

Catherine said...

Thank you so much to all of you for your support with this decision. I feel really good about this choice for us! I am eager to get things moving but know I have to be patient. :(

It means so much to me that all of you have been so supportive.

Julie said...

First of all, you've been tagged in a game. :) feel free to play or disregard. :)

Second of all. Hubby and i are prob. going to do foster to adopt for our second adoption. we'll have to keep in touch. :) Julie

inkatieseyes.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

Sorry it's taken me a while to catch up here. I'm so excited for you and your new path - I'm hoping perhaps for my next I'll head the same way. It's definitely something that has called to me (I've even gone to the informational meetings twice) but I always chickened out. Hopefully someday though. So I'll be watching and keeping my fingers crossed for you!

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