OUR STORY: Adopting Through Foster Care

My husband and I were told early on in our marriage that we would have little chance of conceiving a child together. It was heartbreaking news. We both wanted children and had dreamed of being parents. We were told about foster care and the ability to adopt, so we signed up for classes to at least get more information. 

When we thought of fostering, my husband and I didn’t realize how drastically our lives would change. We took the classes and after our first two, almost stopped going! It just seemed like it would not be the ideal situation for us and was very overwhelming. It honestly was a brand new world that we knew nothing about. We did decided to continue, and after 10 weeks we became a licensed foster home.

Three long, difficult and rewarding years later, my husband and I are proud parents of five children (ages 6, 5, 3, 1 and 1). Four of our kids have been adopted and one we are in the process of adopting. Our fifth child has some special needs and has once again taken us on a journey we would have never thought we’d go on. 

We feel though, all of our children were handpicked by God for us. In his timing, our void of wanting children has been filled to overflowing! Through these years, we have grown such a passion for the local children who need families. 

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Lindsey Hayes and her husband, Walter, have been married for six years.  They feel blessed by the experience of foster care and plan to continue fostering once their current children have gotten a little older.