Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Baby J Update

It's been a while since I blogged; this was intentional.  First of all, I was on vacation and dial-up isn't all that conducive to blogging (in fact, I didn't even check facebook or e-mail while I was gone).  Secondly, some important things were going on in my life and the life of my church that weren't appropriate to blog about.  And third was that part of life was completely different and I had to make sure that my family and closest friends didn't read it before they heard it.

This post deals with intentionality #3.

Last Friday I went out for a much-needed run.  I got back from an 8 miler and the phone rang.  It was our social worker who had news.  Baby J's hearing, for DJFS' temporary custody extension, had happened.  And the judge granted his birth parents custody.

For us that meant that we had about 1/2 hour to gather his things together and to give him back.  It was a really emotional time for me (and for Jonathan as well).  We were tired already and emotionally spent, and it seemed like this was one more thing on top of all that.  But the reality was, it was an answer to prayer.  We had prayed all along that if we weren't to keep (adopt) him, that we wanted him returned soon.  We developed a good rapport with his birth parents and liked them and were pulling for them to get their stuff done so they could get him back.  They did it, and they deserve their baby. 

We had always said that we were holding him with open hands; that he is/was God's child, not ours, as are Jonathan and Andrew.  We have them for a short time and we'll do our best with them while we have them.

Now we've experienced this part of foster parenting.  We poured our love on Baby J, and I know that was rewarded.  We gave him a great start and showed him the love of Jesus. And he will always be a part of our family and in our hearts.

1 comment:

John said...

How heart-wrenching!

But how wonderful that you were able to bring a bit of joy and peace into this child's life.