Sometimes you have a big dream in your heart, something you know belongs to you, and you should have it. I’m not talking about idolatry, greed or violent things… I mean destiny – calling – vocation. It should be yours. A friend of mine knows he’s supposed to crack the one-to-many training environment. Another knows he’s supposed to break into the motivational speaking market. Some times the reason is self sabotage. Sometimes the season or timing isn’t right, and we just need to wait. Sometimes it’s all about character development.

Kellie and I have long suspected we were supposed to become foster carers. It was an inkling. We applied to DoCS back in 2007, just as Rylie was born. They lost the paperwork. We applied again in 2008, only to be told we had too many children and were outside their range of acceptable limits. We were called in 2009 and asked to reapply – they needed families and thought we were right for the job. We did the requisite training, got a home inspection… then waited. Our case worker resigned, the paperwork was lost again. We asked ourselves, “Should we quit? Was this a sign?”

We reapplied again in 2011, were asked to redo the training (nothing had changed) and underwent 3 days of interviews (three eight hour days!). We were put through more training (on positive parenting) and finally (because of the size of our family) had to be approved at regional and then state manager level. At the end of 2012 – five years after our first application – we were finally approved. It felt like a wonderful victory.

Between then and now, there have been no children requiring placement. And that’s OK – it’s good news for our community. I wondered again if this were all some big cosmic joke – or if perhaps, in some way, we were still not ready. But in hindsight I have come to a different conclusion. I wouldn’t trade our experience in for another one – because of what the journey did to us. The arduous journey, the long wait, the hard process altered us as individuals, as a couple and as a family. We came under scrutiny, our beliefs were deeply challenged, we were pushed in ways we had not been before.

And that was good… Very good.