Father of Five- a Valentine’s Day story of Love!
Yes, it’s true. I am the father of five kids! I know it’s a
shocker but it is true. It never ceases to amaze me- the look on people’s faces
when I tell them how many children I have. For those of you that know my wife
and me, it may be a bit easier to understand. Both of us love kids. We always
have. We both have a background and experience in Primary and Elementary
education. In fact we both meet at the YMCA working with children. (I did meet
her before that but I made such a poor impact she never remembered me and says
to this day that she met me for the first time that day at the Y) Like I said
in the title, this is a story about love. My wife and I were married in August
of 1992. She was 19 and I was 25. (Insert cradle robbing joke here) It would
not be until ten years later that we would have our first child. After our
third son was born in 2007 Tricia and I began to talk about more children. Well
after one miscarriage, one emergency Cesarean one life threatening case of
HELLP Syndrome and two additional planned cesareans the doctor highly recommend
that we do not have any more children the natural way. We began to pray. We
felt that God told us that we were not done with our family. We decided to
check into adoption. As we investigated adoption we discovered the idea of
Foster to Adopt. This term is very vague and as we discovered there is more to
it than the way it sounds. Anyway, jump forward to 2010. We had taken the
necessary classes, made the necessary changes to our home, filled out the
endless pages of paperwork. We were finger printed, background checked
questioned by the CIA. *Just kidding about the CIA partJ. The point is that all
of the necessary requirements were completed and we were certified back in
2009. So here we are in 2010. It had been about a year and we had an empty
nursery room sitting in our home (this fact in itself was difficult for
Tricia). We were both ready to give up and not renew our licensing. Then one
afternoon we got a call. That day would begin a 15 month journey. We would eventually
adopt our little Sunshine. She would make our family a family 6. Now jump
forward to a few months ago. We received another call and were asked if we
could take care of another one of God’s little children who needed a safe and
loving home. We had not planned to add anymore to our family. We were not out there
putting our name on a list. But, when we were called we prayed and asked God
what we should do. Both Tricia and I came away with the same feeling- we felt
like God told us “If you could you should.” I even tried to come up with
reasons why we should not take in another child but I could NOT come up with
any! I could not find any logical reason why we could not/should not open up
our home and lives to another child. So here I am the Father of Five. I do not
know how long our little lady bug will be with us. I do not know if we will
have the opportunity to adopt. This I do know “We are doing what God told us to
do!” So no matter what friends, family or others may say- We love our kids-all
five of them! We are not a perfect family but our family is one of LOVE! So, on
this “Day of Love” I challenge you to consider Fostering or Adoption. As of
July 2012 there were 400,540 children in the U.S. foster care system (source-
Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System Report). So tonight as
you say “I Love You” to your special one- remember to pray for the children in
the Foster system waiting for their forever family.
Blessing and Happy Valentine’s Day!
