Adoption Training

This week James & I attended our required adoption training.  We really did not know what to expect and I think we thought it would be 3 days of useless information.  We were so wrong!  We first learned about children in foster care.  A little facts for you...Did you know there are 32,474 children in the Texas foster care system? There are over 4,000 children who are free to be adopted in Texas each year and about 3,000 finalized adoptions each year.  All of these children have been abused & neglected & their parents have had their rights taken away.  These are very hurting, lonely, and confused children.  It's not their fault they have been thrown into the system and each and every one of them deserves to belong to a loving home.  We also learned about the adoption process & what to expect and all the steps & paperwork.  The most important things we were taught is how to love & discipline these children.  It takes LOTS of time & patience (which are 2 things I lack most).  We learned about attachment, how a brain works when it's been abused & neglected, and how we are going to have to parent differently.  A child who has been loved & nurtured from day one from their parents grow, attach, socialize, love, & function normally but a child who did not receive the same treatment from birth has to be parented in an entirely different way.  We were taught how to take these children and reprogram their brains to trust, attach, & love again.  It was a very eye-opening lesson for us and taught James and I so much.  We learned about development & different approach to handle acting out and really understanding the why behind the behaviour instead of just focusing on the behaviour. We both agree that EVERY parent needs to take a class like this because it really made us look at our kids differently & realize some things about them.  We already do a lot of the parenting tips they suggest but there was so much more we were missing.  It was worth taking 3 days out of our lives to be educated about these children & I truely believe we will be better parents and a better team from what we learned these past 3 days.  We also got our CPR/first aid certification done which was a good refresher for us since it had been 3 years since our last class.  I also liked the fact I got to spend 3 days alone with my husband which NEVER happens. 

I am so thankful for my team of "helpers" that made these 3 days possible.  My mom came into town to help with the 2 older kids and it's a good thing she did because Gage started running fever the morning of our first training so mom took him to the doctor and he has strep throat...again.  Sheesh! So, he was home Thursday & Friday.  My nurse working overtime to help with Autumn and my sister-in-law gave up her Saturday to take care of Autumn.  There is no way we could do what God has called us to do without the people we have in our lives to help us.  THANK YOU ALL!!!  The training made me super excited about this new journey God has called us on.  You know it's God when you can sit through 3 days of hearing about all the horrible trauma these children have been through & all the hardwork & effort it's going to take on our part to accept another child into our home but all you feel is peace about it all.  I have no doubt that the son God has planned for us is going to give us more than we can ever give to him.