[Just Julie]

Wow!! This is totally awesome! Three years ago we became foster parents to a 17 y/o boy 3 months before his HS graduation. He was a student at the HS where I teach, but I didn't know him until we heard of his situation. Anyway, just to say "been there, done that" and it has been incredible. He will be a college senior this year, and we hope to adopt soon.

He called us by our first names to start. As he never had a dad who treated him properly, he asked my husband if he could call him "Dad" pretty early. When he went to college he referred to us as his parents, so I asked if he wanted to call us "Mom" and "Dad" and he said he did. Ask him how he would like to refer to you with his classmates. That might lead to a good discussion and make the decision easier. If he starts with your first names, that might lead to more questions from his friends than he wants to answer, especially if he changes to "Mom" and "Dad" after a few months.

When you finally get him into your home, it might still be somewhat awkward at first. We had a snack after his former foster parents left and then moved furniture! The bedroom he was actually going to occupy was a different one than we had told the SW, but we needed to move out a heavy desk and move beds downstairs, etc. It lightened the atmosphere and we had a lot of laughs in the process. For us, having a task like that made it easier, so maybe you could clean the garage or remove some tree roots or put up some jam!

God bless you for taking a teenage boy. They need moms and dads as much as the little ones. Tears of joy for you!