Part 3: A Match Made in Texas

It is important that I also mention that we were not into doing any foster care if we could help it. We wanted to get the kids into our home for keeps and we didn't want to have to deal with any parents. This will be important in a bit, along with our other qualifications.

For the next couple of months we received calls from Homes 4 Good about several sets of siblings. The primary problem with all of them was that there were three, every time.

Everyone knows that waiting is hard, so I was already caving and asking, "why not, John?". My always steady and steadfast man who knows my limits so well was nice enough to never say, "you can't handle three more", whether he thought it or not. His response was always, "We only have two seats left in the van."

Then one day, I think it was about this time of year, early October, three years ago, I got a call from Homes 4 Good with another possibility. I remember Terry, the H4G rep on the other end, distinctly saying, "I want you to listen Heather, because I know these kids are not exactly what you were looking for, but I know you and I think this might be good." So I listened.

She told me about a brother and sister sibling group in Waco. Miranda was 6 and Colton was 5. They had the same parents and had been in foster care for a year. The state was looking for an adoptive home for them. They were in a legal risk situation which meant that while the state was looking for an adoptive home to place them in, there was no guarantee that they would stay in that home for good because the parental rights had not yet been terminated.

Alas, the plans of men are but wayward thoughts compared with the plans of God.

Even though they were older than we had first desired, (we thought since Miranda, who was older than Jason, was a girl it wouldn't be much of a problem), they were not immediately adoptable (that means we would be in a foster to adopt situation), and the parents were still in the picture (we would have to take them on one hour family visits twice a month until the termination trial which was scheduled for May), for some reason (the Holy Spirit maybe, the providence of God might be a good guess) we were drawn to them.

So we submitted our home study (the process took about a month)and we were chosen to be Miranda's and Colton's adoptive family. We traveled to Waco one day in early November to meet them. We thought this would help them with the transition and then they would arrive in our home around the end of November, the Tuesday before Thanksgiving to be exact.

It was to be quite a week....