"You must be crazy!"

"You must be crazy!" This is a phrase I hear daily and yes there are times that I feel a bit crazy but for the most part I am pretty sure I am sane. Why do so many people question my sanity? Could it be our clown-like exit of the car or possibly my tendency to start a day with one number of kids and end it with an additional one or sometimes two children. I guess what it boils down to is society's new view of what a "big family" is.

Since I was a very young child I have always wanted to have children and adopt children from the foster system. When my husband and I started dating I told him my plan and he still asked me to marry him so I suppose he agreed to it one way or another. Erich (my husband of over 14 years) is an only child...well he was until his first brother was born three months after our oldest child was born but that is another story. Erich has stood by me and all of my "crazy" ideas and I have been there for a few of his.

Erich and I had our first child Logan in October of 2004. I was 20 and Erich was 22 and we were totally in love with our little (10 lb) red headed, blue eyed baby. 

In 2007 we very briefly moved from Michigan to Florida and in the time we were there I thought my dream of adopting through the foster system was about to come true. Our friends from church had a beautiful one year old foster daughter, Jillian, that they had since birth. When parental rights were terminated we were being considered for adoption and suddenly her grandparents decided that they wanted to adopt her. I think of her often and am so grateful for her part in our lives because I believe that she is what opened Erich's heart to adoption. Jillian had made us realize how good we were at loving children regardless of where they came from. 

We moved back to the Mitten State right before 2008. After much deliberation (which I am calling my lawyer-esque ways of communicating with my husband) we decided to have another little one. After a very crazy pregnancy, along came little Bowen in December of 2008. 

Bowen's "spirited" ways never made me shy away from my dream of adoption. 

Time had brought us many blessings, a new house with more space and a new career for Erich. In January of 2013 we started the process to get our foster license. At the beginning of May 2013 we were completing the last class of our PRIDE training and our licensing worker asked us to stay after class to talk to her. Cue Saved By The Bell "OOooOo". We weren't in trouble though, instead she asked us if we would be willing to take two little girls eight months and 18 months. Our hearts leapt, mine most likely for a different reason than Erich's as he thought that we would have until after summer before we were accepting placements. We didn't even have our license yet. She gave us some time to think about it (even though I had already made up my mind... as usual). After a night of talking with my parents and more of that "deliberation" we spoke of before, we said yes! Of course we said yes!

Ariya and Nadia arrived to us on May 10th and we could see that we had a long road ahead of us. I have never seen such a sad sight. These sweet little girls had been severely neglected and it showed. I promise I will get into this story more in another post very soon!

After a very hard year Nadia's adoption was finalized in May of 2014 (which is relatively fast) and Ari's finalized soon after in August. 

We continued our foster license and did respite care often. May 2nd 2016 started like any other day, taking kids to appointments about an hour from home when I got a call from our old caseworker. She said that Nadia's dad had another baby and he was being discharged from the hospital that day. She needed to know if we would take placement. In total shock I said, "YES, of course!" She asked if I would like to ask Erich first to which I replied, "NO, I already know what he will say." She laughed as she had seen that "deliberation" in action and knew the outcome...he really is the nicest husband! Next thing I knew we had a baby. A brand new baby boy. I signed two papers and left the hospital with a little 7 pound bundle. 

Tobin's adoption finalized this April (2018) and we could not be more excited!

In the last year we have gone from six kids back to five and then to seven now we are at six again. It is an ever changing life, never dull, not always calm but perfectly mine. 

Are we "crazy"? Maybe. 

If you think you might be a little crazy too we are here to help!

Through the years we have helped many friends through the process of foster care and adoption and we hope that through this blog we can help many more. If you have questions please leave it in the comments and I will try to answer and make a post for that topic as well.