Well if you haven't heard the news...We are going to be house parents at the Alabama Baptist Children's Home in Decatur at the Shelter House. We start in early July. But the purpose of this blog isn't so much to tell you that as it is to share my amazement of how God has so much already at work in our lives long before we ever know what is going on.
When the Boy's Ranch closed we seriously discussed and slightly tried to get one of the boys there. It did not work out because we were not licensed as foster parents. That started us on the steps of deciding to get into foster classes to be licensed. We knew we would probably want teenagers. All along this time, even in this blog I think, I have said if we hit the lotto or came in to a large amount of money we would start a girls home. November came and our church hosts several groups at our Thanksgiving meal. Joe David assigned us to sit with a couple named Dane and Dana who are house parents at the ABCH. We really enjoyed talking with them and hearing their story and in the conversation Dustin said "I could totally see us doing this in a few years." Little did we know what crazy plan God had in play. In the winter time, we went to the open house at ABCH with Joe David and the youth and toured the homes. We saw Dane and Dana for just some brief moments and that was it. We started our foster classes in March(i think). We finished foster classes May 3rd. That night after the class we rushed to see some of our youth girls from church play softball. On the way home(we never would have went that way had it not been for the game) we passed the boy's ranch. I said "I wish someone would buy that and open it up so we could be house parents." Little did I know that God was listening so close to that conversation in the cab of that truck. The NEXT day I got a message from Dana saying that a house had come open and she thought Dustin and I should pray about being house parents. Holy Cow. I text Dustin to tell him. By the time we get home it has consumed our thoughts. That night he had a message from Dane saying that they had already talked to the director and discussed us. Dustin and I discussed it even more and could not come up with one reason not to do it. We have no kids. I did not have a teaching job the next year. He wasn't making a lot of money where he was at. We always said this was what we wanted. My dream is a stay at home mom and now I could do it with him by my side all day. To us it was like God saying, "you have talked it, are you going to walk it?" We went for the interview and both wanted it more than we could begin to explain. We knew we would find out on Wednesday and the night before, my never nervous and never excited husband was SO nervous. I had wanted to puke all week out of anticipation. They called on Wednesday and we got it. Excitement galore!! God in His amazing wisdom was so behind it all. He proved it even more when 30 mins after we found out I walked into the office at school and got told that I would not be rehired the next year. They are cutting units and mine is one of the ones that has to go because it is only a half. I knew that at the beginning of the year but what a cool thing that God sent me a message saying, "Hey, I have you taken care of." I sat there and cried with my boss because of how cool God is to take care of His children that way.
We are so ready to start this. I guess in my ignorance I am not even nervous. I think we are about to have the most awesome job ever possible. I don't know if I have ever seen God's hand at work more than I have in the past couple of weeks. I have never been able to point out His path and steps of setting up my life than the past few months. I do not believe in coincidences, but I very much believe in Divine workmanship that is so very evident right now.
For those of you curious I will try to answer a few of the popular questions we have been getting. We will be located in Decatur on a campus with all the other houses. We will keep our house. We work 6 days and then have 3 off. We will be in shelter house(which is the house we prayed for). It is for temporarily placed kids. 30-60 days. We both work there full time. No other job. We have to change churches to a Baptist church in Decatur so that the kids go to school with people in their peer groups. We completely get it but we will miss being at our home church every Sunday. We will still go to DBC on our off days. The kids we get can be ages infant to 18, male and female. The other houses on campus, they are not shelter houses and are strictly male or female, go from age 6 to 18. We can have up to 8 kids at one time. I hope this answers some questions people might have. I would love to answer any more and we would LOVE to have your prayers. We will need them more than ever right now.
I also want to take the time to thank you for reading this. It touches my heart that people are actually concerned with what I write and with what is going on in my life. It means so much to me. Thank you.
When the Boy's Ranch closed we seriously discussed and slightly tried to get one of the boys there. It did not work out because we were not licensed as foster parents. That started us on the steps of deciding to get into foster classes to be licensed. We knew we would probably want teenagers. All along this time, even in this blog I think, I have said if we hit the lotto or came in to a large amount of money we would start a girls home. November came and our church hosts several groups at our Thanksgiving meal. Joe David assigned us to sit with a couple named Dane and Dana who are house parents at the ABCH. We really enjoyed talking with them and hearing their story and in the conversation Dustin said "I could totally see us doing this in a few years." Little did we know what crazy plan God had in play. In the winter time, we went to the open house at ABCH with Joe David and the youth and toured the homes. We saw Dane and Dana for just some brief moments and that was it. We started our foster classes in March(i think). We finished foster classes May 3rd. That night after the class we rushed to see some of our youth girls from church play softball. On the way home(we never would have went that way had it not been for the game) we passed the boy's ranch. I said "I wish someone would buy that and open it up so we could be house parents." Little did I know that God was listening so close to that conversation in the cab of that truck. The NEXT day I got a message from Dana saying that a house had come open and she thought Dustin and I should pray about being house parents. Holy Cow. I text Dustin to tell him. By the time we get home it has consumed our thoughts. That night he had a message from Dane saying that they had already talked to the director and discussed us. Dustin and I discussed it even more and could not come up with one reason not to do it. We have no kids. I did not have a teaching job the next year. He wasn't making a lot of money where he was at. We always said this was what we wanted. My dream is a stay at home mom and now I could do it with him by my side all day. To us it was like God saying, "you have talked it, are you going to walk it?" We went for the interview and both wanted it more than we could begin to explain. We knew we would find out on Wednesday and the night before, my never nervous and never excited husband was SO nervous. I had wanted to puke all week out of anticipation. They called on Wednesday and we got it. Excitement galore!! God in His amazing wisdom was so behind it all. He proved it even more when 30 mins after we found out I walked into the office at school and got told that I would not be rehired the next year. They are cutting units and mine is one of the ones that has to go because it is only a half. I knew that at the beginning of the year but what a cool thing that God sent me a message saying, "Hey, I have you taken care of." I sat there and cried with my boss because of how cool God is to take care of His children that way.
We are so ready to start this. I guess in my ignorance I am not even nervous. I think we are about to have the most awesome job ever possible. I don't know if I have ever seen God's hand at work more than I have in the past couple of weeks. I have never been able to point out His path and steps of setting up my life than the past few months. I do not believe in coincidences, but I very much believe in Divine workmanship that is so very evident right now.
For those of you curious I will try to answer a few of the popular questions we have been getting. We will be located in Decatur on a campus with all the other houses. We will keep our house. We work 6 days and then have 3 off. We will be in shelter house(which is the house we prayed for). It is for temporarily placed kids. 30-60 days. We both work there full time. No other job. We have to change churches to a Baptist church in Decatur so that the kids go to school with people in their peer groups. We completely get it but we will miss being at our home church every Sunday. We will still go to DBC on our off days. The kids we get can be ages infant to 18, male and female. The other houses on campus, they are not shelter houses and are strictly male or female, go from age 6 to 18. We can have up to 8 kids at one time. I hope this answers some questions people might have. I would love to answer any more and we would LOVE to have your prayers. We will need them more than ever right now.
I also want to take the time to thank you for reading this. It touches my heart that people are actually concerned with what I write and with what is going on in my life. It means so much to me. Thank you.
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