Plan A

In your heart you plan your life.

But the Lord decides where your steps will take you.

Proverbs 16:9

In January 2011 as a family of two we made a "resolution" to be open to expanding our family by adding children.  For most young married couples in many cultures this is typically a 10-month process resulting in the birth of a child who shares the family genes.  This is a common and beautiful thing.  It was what we grew up thinking would happen to us and thus what we went into marriage expecting would happen.  Insert Proverbs 16:9 here.

About the same time we made this decision, God began directing our steps.  For weeks upon weeks, we were relentlessly made aware of orphans, foster care, and adoption.  It was on television, in magazines, in many places we would never have expected.  We received a free e-book entitled Adopted for Life in our email inbox and it wasn't even National Adoption Month!  We prayed, we talked...we decided that we would pursue foster care/adoption, unless of course we got pregnant in the process.  And wouldn't you know it, we have not experienced miscarriage or infertility that we know of and the direction of our steps in growing our family, is taking us down the path of foster parenting. 

Plan A is the first choice.  It is thought to be the best option. Plan B, C, D, etc. come after Plan A has failed.  When you are young and married and you say you are going to be foster parents before having children of your own, this comes as a surprise for most, it's not a common first choice.

There are questions people want to ask you...

There are presumptions people hint at...

There is fear that people have for your well-being, (after all, we don't know these kids or their families...)

When we chose to give God control over our lives, our Plan A for expanding our family became foster parenting.  With Plan A may come questions, fear, and doubt...but with Plan A comes peace, trust, and confidence that He is ultimately in control of everything, He decides where our steps will take us.

As we take a step (or maybe a leap) of faith in the direction of foster parenting...thankfully, this Plan A doesn't fail...not because of us, but because of who He is.