How it all began

To understand the situation one must understand the origin or beginning. In August of 2002 I was just finishing a summer of two weddings. Two of my children had been married that summer both wanted receptions in our back yard. The receptions were great and I was tired. I had three married children and our youngest at the time was 4 years of age.
I began to have disturbing dreams. I would hear a child calling Mom, Mom, Mom. I had this experence before when a child was to join our family. This was disturbing because at the age of 46 I didn't think bearing another child was a good option. I contacted all 8 of my children to make sure everyone was O.K. I made this dream a matter of prayer to understand what I was to do. I didn't say anything to Alan my husband. The dream kept coming and I began to understand that a child needed a home and wanted me to provide a home for her to grow up in.
I finallytalked to Alan about my dream in September. We had travled to Park City for a get-a-way. When he asked me what I planned to do when Peter went to school the next year. I told him I was afraid to tell him because I was afraid he would think I was crazy. Then I told him about the dreams and that I thought we were being directed to look for a child to adopt that needed a home. He told me that he had had the same dream. So we began looking.
There weren't many options open to us because we already had 8 children and we were older. Over-seas adoption was one option however the cost was between 20 and 30 thousand dollars. We didn't have the money to look there. We had enough money to support another child but not enough to spend that amount looking. Then we remembered foster care. We had thought about doing foster care before but everytime I looked in to it I'd become pregnant and we let it go .
So we got ready to do foster care as a way to adopt. We believe that all children should have a family that loves and take care of them. I knew we were looking for a little girl, probably Hispanic. because of my prayers. We took classes , completeed a home study, and waited. Our first placement was a beutiful little boy 14 monthes old. Andre stayed with us only 4 monthes but I fell in love with him. What a sweet boy. He returned to his paternal Grandmother. It was difficult to let go. He had be born very pre-mature only weighing 2 pounds .
Jasmine was placed with us on August 13th. She had just turned 2 and we were her second foster home since being taken from her family at 20 months. She had come from the hospatial before going into foster care. She had asthma that had put her in the hospital. No one came to pick her up when it was time to go home. She was tested, then they placed her in the Christmas Box House and she had meth and cocaine in her system. She was also obese and border line diabetic. She had very few English words in her vocabulary. Her first foster home had introduced food. She had not had solid food only bottles and hot cheetos. We were told that she would not be staying long as her maternal grandmother was getting things in order to take her. We were able to stabilize her diet and she stopped gaining weight. We were advised that she needed to grow into her weight by her doctor.
Her language exploded and she had fisrt 50 words and then 500 words to ask for what she wanted. It was fun to watch her grow. How she loved to be able to talk and say what she wanted and how she felt. Her grandmother completed the requirments and she was placed in a 45 day trail reunionification with her. She moved home and I thought we were done. However her Grandmother requested that I make weekly visits. So I supported her Grandmother as she tried to parent Jasmine and teach her the skills a two year old needs to be learning.
As the 45 day period came to a close she asked to meet with me and told me she was having health problems and she only felt peace if Jasmine was with us. So I went to court with her Grandmother and she signed her over to us. Jasmine moved back to our home and we began to prepare for her adoption. On July 18th of 2004 she joined our family. All my children came to court and Grandma Nancy came as well. So it began.