Flips Story - Part 1 - Choices can change our lives...For Enternities.

It seems that we all have a story to tell, some more dynamic than others, but nonetheless we have stories that build our character and tells who and why we are. And "Flips" story is no exception, it tells how our son came to be part of our family.

Flip has been a part of our family ever since he was 18 months old, but before I tell how he came to be part of our family you need to understand that he chose our family. You see after being blessed with 5 wonderful children my wife and I we felt that there were more children that would come into our home. But due to circumstances that were out of our control we knew that this was physically impossible. But never doubt the Lords plans for you and your family for the Lord does know your wants and will bless you accordingly.

My wife always knew that there were more children some where for us, we looked into foreign adoption, but decided that that was cost prohibitive. So with the cost of adoption high we put the idea of adoption out of our minds. However the need for additional children weighed heavily on our hearts. The answer was to become foster parents for the state. That way since we could not adopt then we would be able help other children in need begin their young lives on a positive foot, even f they were only in our home for a short time.

At first I was a little reluctant to look into Foster Care, my wife did all of the investigating as to what we needed to do to become licensed Foster Parents. Upon completing the classes we began the waiting process, waiting for our first foster placement. At first our plans was to do only shelter care, taking newborn babies that were at risk into our home while a permanent home could be found. Our intent was to only provide shelter care for these young children, a safe place where they would feel loved and secure. We figured that this would ease us into the wonderful world of Foster Care.

After having a couple of placements we were feeling like we were making a difference in the lives of these young children and we were even feeling confident about the care we were providing. Then call came that would change our lives and the dynamics of our family forever.

In August of 2003 my wife received a call asking if we could take a 1 year old for a few days while a permanent family is found. At first we thought about it because we already had a newborn in our home, but we figured that it would only be for a few days, so we agreed to take this placement.

I have learned that if we rely on the Lord we will receive the blessing that he has in store for us. Although we may not agree with his timing we can always be assured that the blessing will come if we submit ourselves to his will. Through the next couple of posts of will explain the series of “Miracles” that had to take place for Flip to become part of our family.