For several years, we've known that our neighbors down the road were foster parents and we've seen quite a few different kids come and go from their house. In the busy-ness of life, we hadn't had much of a chance to interact with them. However, a couple months ago, we caught wind of a meal train that someone had started for them when they took in another child to their home. We brought them a meal and offered to help in whatever ways they needed it. We figured that since we are also licensed, they could use our help for respite care or just an occasional break.
Fast forward a month, and Kristen (the mom), texted me with a very big request! One of their children is a twin, and the hope was that we could take in his twin sister in order to allow the two of them to be closer together. Since we have a license, but have never worked directly with DCFS, we were pretty unsure of how it would all work. We also knew that taking in a 16 year old would be way out of our normal comfort zone. Furthermore, the only space that we'd have available would be the basement "bedroom", which is technically not a legal bedroom in the eyes of DCFS because there isn't a proper fire escape. After jumping through a few hoops and getting approval from DCFS for the bedroom, we took a leap of faith and welcomed Nyla to our family. She is just as delightful as Kristen assured us she'd be and we are loving having her in our home. She is so great with Caleb, Leah, and Joel and is the perfect big sister. It has been fun getting to know her and we can't wait to see how our adventure as a family of six plays out!
