The Benores in Texas

A few months ago, Shantell and I decided to start a new phase in our life. If you were guessing something like “they were trying to give away puppies, maybe they kept one”, then you are right about that … but that is not what I am talking about. (As a side note: we kept the runt of Daisy’s litter … and named her Lexi with the help of Shantell’s sister Whitney.) But no, that is not the big news we tweeted/facebook’d about.

Well, I will keep my readers in suspense no longer. OK, maybe a bit longer. On October 31, 2009 I tweeted “Taking a couple of classes today. And don’t ask why it’s a secret for now.” After that, people asked “Why?” and tried to guess everything from ministry related, to puppy classes, to parent classes. Every Saturday since October 31 we have been taking classes. Sometimes the classes were extremely fun and interesting. Others were a bit laborious. A couple of times it took me a day to physically recover (hard chairs + 100 mile round trip drive + arthritic tailbone = ouch). So what was the class for?

As of December 12, we have finished our classes to become foster parents. In the next few months we will continue finishing up our paperwork, getting our home inspected, and getting stuff purchased/gifted to us for the new addition to our family. Our goal as parents is to eventually adopt a little one. However, if you don’t know anything about foster care, the first goal is to reunite the child with their birth parents. This seems like a tension that stands in contradiction. But it is not. If we have a child that we are caring for and their parents get their life back together, we want nothing more than to reunite that child with their parents. However, if there is a child whose parents have their rights terminated for any reason – we would be honored to provide them a safe environment and become their forever family.

We will be registering for stuff, just like those who expect children through pregnancy do. Since we are new at foster care (and parenting for that matter), we’ve decided to start small … we will be seeking a child from birth to 2 years old. The reason for doing this is to limit what we have to purchase upfront for a child coming into our home. If we were open to any age, we would be required to have beds for all ages among other things.

So that’s our big news about the newest phase in our life. We will keep you posted on our progress. Keep in mind that some information we will not be able to share because of privacy laws – but we will share what we can! Thanks for reading and pray for us in our new endeavor.