Instant Family

We saw Instant Family yesterday. I saw previews for it a couple of months ago, and then I forgot about it. Then a few weeks ago, my amazing sister-in-law, April, saw it for her birthday and recommended it! A few days later, a group of my 8th grade girls said they watched it and that I needed to. Lastly, my Nana told me some family friends saw it and said Austin and I should go!
After all of that, we decided to have a little day date yesterday! I expected to tear up, but OH MY GOSH! The floodgates opened within minutes after the movie began, and they continued until it was over!

I won’t ruin the movie for those who have not seen it, but the whole movie is about a married couple who decide to foster 3 siblings. It shows the struggles, the fears, the small victories, and ALL the emotions that can come with foster care.

We are not fostering, but I could still relate to this movie from start to finish. As I watched the couple interact with children needing a home, I couldn’t help but think of our situation. We plan to adopt a newborn. That sweet baby will not have had to go through trauma, like so many foster children have. That doesn’t make infant adoption any less important that foster care! We believe the Lord calls certain people to adopt, certain people to foster to adopt, and others to just foster. ALL are so important and needed.

Those who foster with no intention of adopting are providing a safe home to children who have clearly experienced instability of some kind. While biological parents are getting the help they need, foster parents are able to step in and love those kids. Hopefully when it’s time to go home, the biological parents have figured things out and are in a better place, and the children have been loved, taken care of, and supported.

Those who foster to adopt are opening their hearts and homes to babies, children, and/or teens who have likely experienced terrible things. Trauma. Neglect. Abuse. Drugs. There’s no telling. Fostering with intentions to adopt means making a lifelong commitment to love kids who have been broken and help them heal!

Infant adoption means you get to adopt a newborn who has no experiences yet. Good or bad. The biological parent(s), for whatever reason, know adoption will provide a life for the child that, in their current state, they cannot provide. I applaud women who place their babies for adoption, considering the fact that abortion is the EASIER, FASTER, and LESS PUBLIC option. They love that baby and value their life SO MUCH that they are willing to go through 9 months of pregnancy, labor, delivery, and ALL the emotions that come with adoption just to ensure that the child has the best life possible. Infant adoption means you get to adopt a child who could have ended up having a hard life or even ended up in foster care later anyway, and you get to provide stability and love from day one!

As I sobbed through the movie yesterday, I kept thinking about the child we will one day bring home. I wondered if it will be a boy or girl. White, black, Hispanic, Asian? What color hair and eyes? What will his or her little personality be like? What struggles will we have? We obviously have no idea about any of this, but as I watched, I felt like I had this connection to a child I've never met. A child who is not yet born. A child who may not have even been conceived yet! But yet I felt like MY BABY is just out there waiting for me! I know I sound crazy, but God has a little one planned for us, and yesterday, for the first time in my life, I felt like a MOM just waiting for her baby to come home.

Our home study should be finalized within the next week. I'm checking my email about 30 times a day for an update! As soon as that's done, we'll be on THE LIST just waiting for our own little Instant Family!