Becoming a Family Chapter 4

This is the fourth chapter of the story of how the four of us came to be together, living in this house, playing and working together, loving and caring for each other, and learning to be a family. Read the first and second and third chapters here.

We decided to go the foster care route. My good friends, Paul and Tracy, had been foster parents and recommended we use the same agency they went through. Tracy gave me the phone number, and I filed it in my planner. All I needed to do was work up the courage to call.

I was nervous. I had no idea what I was doing, and I worried that I wouldn't be qualified to be a foster parent. A couple days later, on my lunch break, hands trembling, I dialed the number for the foster agency. I stumbled over my words, trying to articulate the fact that my husband and I wanted to be foster parents. We made an appointment with a case worker to come visit our home to interview us and do an initial home inspection.

I started cleaning, organizing, and trying to make us appear to be the perfect couple. I worried that I was too fat, not good-looking enough, too old, and a whole bunch of other superficial details that have nothing to do with being a loving parent.

The interview was simple enough, a few basic questions and explanations. We took our case worker around our home, and she pointed out different areas where would need to make adjustments to ensure safety for children-outlet covers, locks on cabinets, decals on glass doors, and on and on. She was very friendly and affirming. She gave us a stack of papers an inch thick to start filling out.

We got right to work on the papers, answering personal question after invasive, personal question, and getting the house ship shape. We also started telling family and close friends about our plan to become foster parents. As you can imagine, we received a wide range of responses. Most were supportive, some concerned, some discouraging, some knowing a child who needed a home and hoping it might work out with us. Everyone with an opinion. My level of excitement and fear never waned. Daily I continued to do research and pray and dream.

During this time, I took a trip by myself to the central coast to visit my twin sister, Lisa. On the drive up I was chatting on the phone with my friend, Michele. We were catching up, talking about everything and nothing. At one point she mentioned that our friend, Les, had twin nieces who were staying with his parents for awhile. She said their names and told me they were three years old.

It was just a passing comment, just an update, an aside. But I couldn't get their names out of my head. It seemed like there was something there. I can't explain it. Something stirred in my heart. Have you ever had that sort of reaction to an otherwise ordinary situation? These little girls, whom I had never met, were already in my heart. I couldn't wait to meet them.

I thought about them the rest of the drive up. I kept telling myself to stop. I tried to think of other things, but my mind kept going back to them. When I got to Lisa's house, I told her about the call. I told her how strange I felt. She's a good sister. She was excited as I was.