So you want to adopt through the foster care system?

Are you ready?
Are you ready to be lied to...to be stolen from...to be ridiculed...to be so exhausted you can barely speak in complete sentences?
Are you ready to hear words that you thought would never be spoken in your home...
Are you ready to be humbled at every turn?
Are you ready to give up most of your worldly possessions?
Are you ready to be hated for a season because of all the wrongs that were imposed on your child from others that came before you?
Are you ready to face the stares of others? or to face the parents of those your child caused harm to?
Are you ready to walk away instead of engaging in a battle that you certainly won't win? And are you ready to stay right beside your child even when every part of your being wants to just walk away? maybe even run away?
Are you ready to face the fear that you can't handle this and know that you can't..only the God of the universe can?
Are you ready to face feeling like a failure at this whole parenting thing?
Are you ready to know with certainty that you did not take the comfortable route in this life?
Are you ready to live a life that has not been wasted and experience immense joy in the smallest of accomplishments?
Are you ready to give up the privacy you once had? There are therapists, PCA's and law enforcement that will know more about you than you may have been willing to share? and they will all have their opinions about the way you are parenting..
Are you ready to show love to a child that you don't feel much love for?
And are you ready to get up the next morning and choose to show that love all over again?
Are you ready to accept that your child's future may not be anything like you had envisioned when you started on this journey? Are you willing to give a huge part of your life so that your child may have just a chance at fully living theirs? And if they fail, are you ready to know that it was worth it even if they do not come to know the Lord in the way you had dreamed for them?
Are you ready to trust that the Lord knew your every step before you took them..he knew what you would endure..he knew what your other children would endure..and he says "I am enough.."
Are you ready to deal with the realities that love is not enough but Jesus is..
If you are being called by God to walk down this path...
Are you ready? If you are not, but you are confident that you are being called to this--hang on for dear life and you will find a life waiting for you so worth living. You will experience the depth of God's provision and grace in ways you didn't even know existed. You will be amazed at all that God has in store for you..if you are ready to trust Him with all of your heart...then you are ready whether you feel like it or not. You will not walk this journey alone. God will always be there..always. And there are lots of us walking this journey alongside of you..we will be there too.
There is no greater place to be than on the path that God has laid before you. There are lots of us along the side of the road willing to come alongside of you as you take your first steps...If you are willing to step on the path God is calling you to, you are ready...