This time two years ago, Ben and I were praying and researching about how we would add to our family. We knew we wanted another child (ok, I wanted another child…) but weren’t sure where we should begin. We looked into international adoption, private adoption, and foster care. The more we talked to others and prayed about it, the more we felt led to foster care. That wasn’t an easy decision because the foster care system has a bad reputation. We’ve all heard about large caseloads, overworked social workers and children with overwhelming behaviors in this broken system, but we felt very clearly that God was calling us there.

We started the process in January 2017 and sat though several classes, met with a social worker and made our decisions about what we were willing to take. A 2-4 year old African American male was our preference. Ben didn’t want a baby and Eden wanted someone that looked like her. By May we were just waiting on final approval from our county DCS office. My phone rang on the way to teach my stretch class at church on May 11, 2017 and I heard Stephanie telling us that our paperwork had been approved and we were officially foster parents. She asked, “Are you excited?!” I answered very enthusiastically, “YES!” and Stephanie said, “Great! I have a baby for you!” Umm…what? Stephanie gave me the run down on the baby and asked if we were interested. I quickly called Ben who agreed that God must have planned for this baby to join our family since he was needing a home the day our license was approved.

The next few hours were a whirlwind as I prepared to bring a new baby home from the hospital. Diapers, car seat, crib, pack-n-play, bottles, formula, the list went on and on. We had amazing friends and family that helped us gather all that we would need and I headed off for a night at the hospital getting to know a sweet baby boy.

As I stared a the tiny, white, 5 pound, 3 week old sleeping in the bassinet, I laughed at how Ben and I always think we have a plan for adding to our family and yet, God always seems to have a better one.

Today, that tiny baby is a busy, sweet, adorable almost 18 month old walking, climbing and chattering all over our home. If you’ve had the opportunity to be with us, you know that he is deeply loved and cherished in this house. He has 4 older siblings and two parents who love him and dote on him and now we are anxiously awaiting to chance to make him a Wolfe.

We are waiting (and waiting and waiting) for the process to move. We are tired of the fight and tired of the delays and tired of the processes which feel like they lose sight of the small boy calling us “mama” and “dada”. We want to sit down and rest from the phone calls and the nagging and the shifting schedules and the changing plans.

But, tonight in our family devotions, we read about Jesus teaching his disciples how to pray. In Luke 11:5-10 Jesus tells the story of a man going to his friend at midnight asking for bread. The friend yells from the window, “We’re in bed, we can’t help you.” The NLT version says Jesus told them, “But I tell you this- though he won’t do it for friendship’s sake, if you keep knocking long enough, he will get up and give you whatever you need because of your shameless persistence. And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you.”

So, we’d like to ask you to join us in our “shameless persistence”. Will you knock on the door of heaven with us? Ask that TPR (termination of parental rights) would be filed. Ask that the judge would make a decision for this baby, so that he can find a permanent, safe, loving home with us. You’ve prayed us through many obstacles before, and we know that God will be faithful again.