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Us exactly!
Diane,
Welcome to a wonderful and crazy journey! My husband and I are adopting 3 sibs and are first-time parents. We initially approached the agency we were referred to about 3 children, but they did a pretty good job of convincing us that 3 at once might be overwhelming. They wanted us to consider one, but we were very convicted that we should pursue sib groups and agreed to put our limit at 2 children. Fortunately for us God had much bigger and better plans! We ended up with an emergency foster placement of 3 (ages 5, 3, 2) that our agency would have never considered placing with us had we not initially discussed this many with them. When the agency first called to ask us to take the placement we were so scared and doubtful that we almost said no but we knew that the children would be split up otherwise.
The placement was 9 months ago. We are now blessed to be within a few months of finalization of our adoption. The agency was right, that it was overwhelming. However, I don't think that one child would have been any less overwhelming. From the perspective of a life change for first-time parents, it all changes whether there is one child or 5 children. Priorities change and life gets turned upside down. But here we are only 9 months later and life seems so, urrm, normal. Or at least normal for us. We still have to deal with all of the adoption/foster sensitivities (someone recently asked with surprise if the kids always call us mom and dad - mental note: next time I will be quick on my feet and ask if that is what their kids call them) and legalities of adoption. So from a non-traditional family perspective everything is so completely normal that sometimes it frightens us. We face our challenges on a daily basis because of the issues that children in the system often bring with them and we question our adequacy as parents frequently, but there has not been any moment since we committed to adoption that we have questioned God's wisdom in bringing us together as a family.
Just our story, best wishes for you in creating yours!
Suzy
__________________
Suzy
Ecclesiastes 3, verses 1-9: There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.
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