March 30, 2017 we attended our first foster to adopt meeting in Baltimore City.  Our journey began 7 months before that night getting ready to adopt through foster care.  We had attended 10 weeks of training, had background checks, mental and wellness appointments, multiple home studies, countless meetings, and endless amounts of paperwork.  We were ready to be parents.Just a few weeks prior to that meeting we had received our license to be foster parents and we were so unprepared for all that would happen in just a few short weeks.  That evening we attended our first foster to adopt meeting and it was quite awkward, to be honest.  We sat in a room with a rotating slideshow showing the “available” children.  About 3 minutes in we saw a cute little blonde hair, blue eyed boy come up on the screen and it was right there in that little room that I swear I got chill bumps – I could already picture a life with him in it.  I grabbed Curt’s hand and squeezed it and whispered “That could be him!”

From there, we sat in a room with around 60 other people who were interested in being adoptive parents for the FIVE children available that evening.  They had giant poster boards of each child along with information for you to read.  Henry’s read something like this – Sweet boy with lots of energy.  “J”(birth name) is diagnosed with autism but has the brightest smile.  Loves to give hugs and knows his ABC’s!  I could feel my heart already being knit with the boy in the picture and as I watched that video I knew that I wanted to meet him.  Autism didn’t freak me out.  I grew up with a severely autistic brother and knew all to well what that meant. I could tell immediately by the video that he was wrongly diagnosed and I don’t know if it was the determination in me but goodness, I was ready to advocate for this boy.That night over 20 people put in applications for Henry.  My heart sank as I quickly began thinking we might not get chosen.  We finished the night off by filling out an application and praying that if God wanted us to be his parents that everything would work out.

There is SO MUCH MORE to this story, and a little at a time I will share it all.  This was the day that started it all – the day we found our son on a poster board.