Here I am Lord......

Sometimes, even when you are trying to ignore Him, the Lord keeps knocking.

Sometimes that knocking becomes more of a pounding on your door.

Such is the case with us that lead us to a life changing decision this past February when we applied to adopt 2 young ladies, ages 13 and 11, from the foster care system in our state.

I guess I really should start at the beginning...…..

Frank and I got married in May of 1992.  We combined our families, a girl and boy each, ranging in age from 19 to 6 years of age.  The two eldest (mine) were living on their own.  The two youngest (Frank's) split their time between our home and their Mom's home.

Life was very full and rewarding.  We were working full time and our weekends were spent enjoying family.  The kids all got on with their lives, and while we saw them as often as our schedules would allow, we missed the activity of having children in the house.  

We talked about taking in foster children.  We worried, however, because with our background in law enforcement we knew exactly how bad a home had to be to have children removed.  We also knew that the goal of foster care is to reunify the families.  We didn't think we would have the fortitude to send children back into a home that we didn't trust.

We decided to not make any decisions until we were retired.  Shortly after I retired, we began taking in Exchange Students.  We loved having them and have 5 children of our hearts living all over the world.  

Life evolved and we were kept busy caring for our elderly parents. That was a full time job, in and of itself.  They are now all up in Heaven playing pinochle and laughing at each other's goofy jokes. 

And we were left here on Earth with an empty nest again.  We would occasionally broach the subject of foster children.  There were often articles in our church bulletin nudging us and sometimes God would speak to us through our Pastor's homilies.  

During the next couple of years, one or the other of us would feel like we were being urged to take in more children. We would discuss it, talk about fostering, talk about perhaps taking exchange students again and then we would decide that our life was not conducive to more children.  That our kids and grandkids were enough.

We were getting ready to celebrate Thanksgiving and readying our house for Advent when Frank again brought up how much he missed having kids in the house, especially during the Holidays. 

A couple of weeks later our Pastor spoke of the mind boggling amount of children who were without homes in Michigan.  We discussed it again and decided that this was a fascinating coincidence but nothing more.

The following week there was a huge article in our church bulletin from Catholic Social Services begging people to open their hearts and homes to children. We discussed it again and decided to contact Catholic Social Services and offer to take children into our home over the Holidays.  But not this year, we said, we will look into it next year.

Then, the weekend after Christmas,  we had a neighborhood party and learned of these girls who have been through the wringer and really needed a home.  Frank and I discussed it the next day and decided that God wasn't really expecting us to take this on at this time in our lives.

Throughout January, one or the other of us would broach the subject. We would confirm that while the need was great we really didn't want to take on such an immense responsibility.

Then we celebrated the Sacrament of Confirmation with the 8th Grade Class.  Bishop Battersby officiated and he gave a very nice homily to the young men and women.  He spoke of allowing the Holy Spirit to work within you and of how he kept ignoring God's knock when he was being led into the priesthood.  He had a million reasons why he couldn't do what God was asking of him.  He asked the students to keep their eyes, ears and hearts open to whatever God had planned for them.

The following day, Monday, Frank asked me what I thought of the Bishop's homily.  I told him I thought it was a great homily.  Frank replied "I feel like he hit me with a sledgehammer, I think we really need to adopt those girls".  

Frank sent an email to the adoption agency.  They responded immediately.  We were leaving for California on Wednesday so we arranged to meet with the adoption agency upon our return.  It was decided that we would apply for our foster license so that the girls could live with us while awaiting the adoption to be finalized.  We were notified yesterday that the license is in.  

We now will have a meeting with the adoption agency where we will be provided full disclosure of what these girls have been through and how they have handled the abandonment, rejection and abuse they have suffered through the years.   We will then sign the Intent to Adopt paperwork and hopefully the girls will be with us as soon as school is dismissed for the year.

So there you have it.  God knocked and we ignored it for as long as we could.  Finally, he pounded and he said "not only do I want you to open your home and heart, these are the children to whom you should open them".  Here I am Lord...let me do your will.