Coincidence....I think not!

Back in 2010 when I was pregnant with what we thought would be our 3rd and final child, I kept having 'feelings' like I would be caring for and dressing {because let's face it...that's what really is most important!}  a boy AND a girl.

It was confusing to me because at my first ultrasound there was only one fetus. But the prompting was still there. My heart kept feeling....BOY and GIRL.

Fast forward a year and a half to June of 2011. I couldn't get the idea of foster care out of my mind. We had lost our little one and tried for 6 more months to get pregnant again without success. It weighed on my heart heavy and one day while sitting at our community pool, I approached a woman I knew who did foster care.

I asked if there was a need and told her Dave and I were interested.

She gave me a number to call and I made the phone call on the very next day.

In the County of Napa, the foster care program is very well supported. We did our initial orientation with the licensing worker and I got butterflies in my stomach. We reiterated that we wanted 'itty bitties' aka newborns and were only interested in emergency and/or temporary placements. It felt so right.

We left for our annual summer vacation to San Clemente. I was still so preoccupied with the idea of fostering and couldn't get babies out of my head. While shopping at a mall down there with my sister and whole family, I begged to go into Janie and Jack. I just had to pick up a little outfit or two to start preparing for a baby in our home. I picked up a boy outfit and a girl outfit. Because that boy AND girl feeling was still so present. Dave was a little irritated that I was already spending money on 'baby items' and my sister thought I was crazy!

When we returned from our vacation we started our foster care training classes the end of August. They were amazing. 30 hours of training over a period of 10 weeks with 6 other couples all interested in foster care. We had two great trainers and a few special experienced foster care parents as guests who taught us about real life experiences as foster parents and what to expect.

We graduated the second week of November and by the end of November, when our first placement call came in, all we needed to do was complete our fingerprinting.

I will never forget that first phone call.

It was for a 1 year old little girl with SB and it wasn't emergency or necessarily temporary. It would most likely be a 4-6 month placement. We said yes because it was more than just a coincidence that a 1 year old with special needs the same as our son would need a home the same week we were getting licensed.

I joked over the next two days that we signed up for newborns....not a 1 year old and it was then brought to our attention that she came with a newborn. A baby boy. My heart skipped a beat as I thought...there it is...what I have been prepared for this whole last year...a girl AND a boy.

A few weeks ago I watched Little Miss playing on our family room floor and I looked at her. I thought of her birth date and then started doing the math. My due date with what would have been our 3rd was only two weeks off from Little Miss' birthday! What we had crawling around in our home...this toddler that we didn't necessarily 'sign up for' was the exact age of what our little one would have been if that baby would have been born. It was more than coincidence to me.

Imagine my surprise just two weeks ago when I found the Janie and Jack bag from our summer vacation last year. I gently pulled out the items, remembering I had bought a girl outfit and a boy outfit.

I began to cry as I lifted the little boy outfit out....size 3-6 months...exactly the size of Little Mister for this upcoming spring. And the little girl outfit I had bought....size 12-18 months...exactly Little Miss' size also for this spring.

Coincidence....I think not!

{If you have ever felt like you could possibly do foster care, I encourage you to check out your local area. There is such a need and I'm telling you...these little ones are so easy to love.}