The Waiting Game

Baby girl - Child #5  - left us on March 1st. The Man of the House and I were assigned a new caseworker a few weeks before this. We told her the day we found out that Baby Girl was leaving that we were fully invested in our foster care lives and would love another placement whenever it would occur. In May, we received two placement e-mails: one about two girls aged 8 and 10, and another for two other siblings, a newborn and a 2-year-old. We had decided the first situation was a little too old for our family, but we were very excited about the two littles. We waited around for a day and then heard that placement had been found elsewhere.  

Another e-mail came in mid-July about a placement for a 3-week-old baby boy who is currently in the hospital with medical issues pertaining to the issue behind his removal.(You don't get full details on everything before you accept a placement, so we didn't know exactly why he was in the hospital, just that he was currently receiving treatment.) He would need to be there for three more days. At his release, he will need to go to a foster-adopt home. No family members are available to take him in. Our caseworker wrote that she forwarded our home study for consideration and would let us know when she heard about his placement for sure. I called her to confirm that we were interested and asked her to please keep us posted. The next afternoon, I called the caseworker again to follow up, and she said she hadn't heard anything back, which probably meant another family had been found.

We have been hopefully waiting for "our" next child. We became incredibly attached to Baby Girl and adored being a family of five for two months. I love hearing Miss A pray for a new baby to come to our house, and it makes my heart hurt as well to hear it.

Yesterday, we received an e-mail inviting us to a family matching party in October. At this event, prospective families come together and interact children available for adoption, in this case at a carnival-type setting. Over the course of the several hours, hopefully parents and children identify each other and, once they give information to the caseworkers, a match can happen. We have never been to one of these before. It seems to us that this would probably consist of mostly older children, as infants and younger children seem to have quicker and easier placements. I'm especially interested to see how this works and see if this could be the path in which God blesses us with a new addition.
I'm not a patient person by nature. (Are any of us? :-)) The actual process of waiting and hoping and praying can definitely be fraying on the nerves. I feel most times on a thin wire balancing between contentment - "I'm ready to follow Your plan, God, and if that means waiting, we'll honor You in our waiting..." - and irritated impatience - "Seriously? I'm waiting again?!"

In our heads and in our hearts, we know that this is God's plan and everything will unfold in his timing.

Such is the life of a foster/adopt parent - hurry up and wait!