A 10 Month Journey Part 1: Who Are Those Kids?

Who are those kids?

That was a question I got from a bunch of people in the first month we got our foster kids.  Some people thought they were neighbor kids we brought to church while others thought we had adopted them.  We were fairly quiet about getting them for a reason.  We were only supposed to have them for 3 weeks.

That's right.  3 weeks.

We ended up having them for 10 months.  How did we get them?  Why was it only supposed to be 3 weeks?  Why was it 10 months?  Those are all questions you probably have.  And those are questions I am still processing 10 months later lol.  The past 10 months have kind of seemed like a blur and I'm still remembering moments and struggles and fears that I've faced.  I'm hoping that writing it all out will help me process what the past 10 months have been.

The story initially starts in August 2014.  I was interviewing for teaching jobs and I got a call from Lake Placid Elementary that they wanted to interview me.  I had had an interview at Sun N' Lake Elementary in Sebring and it went well, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to teach there.  I didn't really want to work in Lake Placid because it's a half hour away and I didn't want to teach Kindergarten, which is what I would be interviewing for.  Well, I figured, I should at least interview because it'll be a good experience and it'll help me get my around the district.  So I went down to Lake Placid fully convinced I didn't want the job there.  As soon as I drove down the school's road, I knew this is where I was supposed to be.  The interview went great and I felt confident I would get offered the job.  I wasn't sure why I was supposed to be there, but this is where I felt God wanted me to be.  I did get offered the job (and they moved me to 2nd, yay!).

Fast forward to May 2015.  Ben and I had been married 10 months and the school year only had one more month left.  I had almost survived my first year of teaching!  A lot of Mondays we went to the Wheelock's house for dinner and this week was no different.  When we walk in, a friend of ours was sitting there talking to Matt Wheelock.  They were in the middle of talking about these 2 kids who really needed a home for a few weeks.  We sat down and I wasn't really paying attention to their conversation when she turns to me and exclaims, "Hey!  You work at Lake Placid Elementary!  Could you take 2 kids for the last 3 weeks of school?"

My immediate response was yes!  I have always wanted to do fostering and even told Ben a month before that that's something I want to do someday.  But that's what it was: a someday idea.  Like maybe when we have a few kids and they're in school so that they can understand what's going on.  Definitely not 10 months into our marriage.  However I thought of it with the mindset of, if this was one of my students who was in need, wouldn't I jump at the chance to help?

Ben on the other hand was a bit more hesitant.  And with good reason.  We were only 10 months into our marriage, we had never taken care of kids before, we didn't have any toys, clothes, etc. for kids, we were only 21 and 22 and weren't sure if we could handle a 6 year old and an 8 year old.

We discussed it further on Tuesday.  I really felt that God wanted us to do this and perhaps this is why God had brought me to Lake Placid Elementary.  After some counsel, we decided that we could give 3 weeks of our lives to kids who needed a home and the love of Jesus.

Here was their situation in short: Our kids were 2 of 5 children who had been removed from their home with the hopes of reuniting with both parents.  They could no longer stay in their current placement for a time and needed a place to stay until the end of school because moving them to another school or even county for the last 3 weeks of school was not ideal.  After school they would go back to their current placement.

Not too bad, right?  Yes, it was our first year of marriage, and yes it was my first year of teaching, but we could do it!  3 weeks!

Here's a spoiler alert....

*whispers*

It was more than 3 weeks ;)

Here's some photos from our first few months with the kids.

Here's our giant family!

Our First Anniversary ~ North Carolina

I can't believe that one year has already gone by!  So many memories and fun times that Ben and I had this year culminated in our first anniversary trip.  We went to Asheville, North Carolina and spent some time in the beautiful mountains there.  In flat Florida, we don't see any mountains, so it was wonderful to revisit the mountains we had seen as children.

Mountains on our way into Cataloochee

Ben recorded a lot of the trip with our GoPro

We had a picnic lunch when we got into the old historic town of Cataloochee ~ one of the last of the old settlement towns.

Our picnic was in front of the old schoolhouse

We went on a hike through the old mountains.  It was beautiful!

The Caldwell Place

We had a wonderful time celebrating our first anniversary in North Carolina.  We hope to go back someday and revisit these beautiful mountains again!  

Honeymoon in Oregon

As I'm sure you know, I just got married!  We had such a wonderful wedding and spent the night at a nearby cabin.  Sunday afternoon we drove down to Leesburg, Virginia where we had met up after Ben came back from his trip to South Africa almost 3 years ago.  We had dinner at The Wine Kitchen, which was one of our only options because a lot of things were closed, and I had the most delicious and flavorful meal I have ever had: a scallop and mint pea risotto.  Seriously, I would go back there and eat that if I could.  We flew out of Dulles on Monday and headed to Portland, Oregon.  "Why would you go to Portland?" was something many people asked or so said the looks on their faces.  I hope the following pictures show you why.  They don't completely capture the beauty that is Oregon, but Ben and I tried our hardest.  It was a perfect honeymoon.

Our first stop was Portland where we got our rental car from Hertz (a 2014 Chevy Captiva, which I highly recommend) and explored the city a little.  Then we headed a little west to Multnomah Falls.  All our friends who live or visited the Pacific Northwest had always talked about its beauty, and it did not disappoint.

They had a cute little gift shop and we found a nice mug to add to our large collections of mugs.  If you ever come visit and drink coffee, chances are you'll see that mug.  Ben really likes it.

We drove south then to Coos Bay.  It's about a 4 1/2 hour drive, but it was one of the most beautiful drives.  The tall pines trees, the surrounding mountains, and the pleasure of Ben's company and "Wait, Wait...Don't Tell Me! The NPR News Quiz" made for a joyous ride.  We stopped here at one of the first scenic points looking down at the rivers and valleys. 

One cool thing about Oregon was that they have tiny, drive-thru espresso places on the side of the road.  Our favorite is Dutch Bros. Coffee.  They make amazing drinks.  

Our cabin was called Below The Falls Lodge and it was so beautiful!  Shane Daugherty, the owner, built the cabin out of wood on the property.  It's about a half hour west of Coos Bay and we drove tiny backroads through beautiful woods.

Ben loved the propane stove.

Our second day in Coos Bay we headed over to the downtown part.  We had lunch at a cool seafood restaurant and then had Italian for dinner.

On the boardwalk was a history of Coos Bay and the surrounding area.

In the afternoon, we went exploring and came to Sunset Bay.  We didn't intend on going there, but we ended up spending around 3 hours exploring the tide pools and rocks.

The rocks were very smooth and good for skipping.

The urchins here were really cool!  If you touched part of it, it would close.

There were many snails as well.  Some of them had really beautiful shells.

Ben's goal was to catch a crab.  This is the first one he found.  This one was too tiny, so he wanted to find a bigger one.  

I was sad because I was trying to get around this huge rock (upon which Ben is standing) but I had the camera on my back at one point and after giving it to Ben, was stuck.  I did eventually make it around the rock, but not without almost falling in.

Ben explored farther than me and found some neat starfish, along with these little channels where water would flood in and then rush back out.

Ben managed to nab a big crab!  Well, big for where we were.  Those little buggers are fast and their pinchers hurt (as Ben found out).

The next day we stayed home and decided to check out the Golden and Silver Falls about a mile up the road.  It was a long and tiring hike, but it was worth it!  We traveled alongside a creek and up the mountains and it was beautiful.

I'm not sure why, but this is one of my favorite shots of our whole trip.

This is Silver Falls.  It was very mesmerizing and we probably could've spent much longer there because the falls go on for a long time.

It was hard to see all of the falls because of the foliage and lack of trail, but it was so beautiful.  

We headed down to California to the National Redwood Forests and the drive alone was worth it.  We followed the Pacific Coast most of the way, and the clash of the mountains with the oceans was just breathtaking.  We stopped for about a half hour at Gold Beach, OR to check out the beautiful ocean.  

We found these weird, bulbous things.  Still don't know what they are.

We went down to the Trees of Mystery.  It was kind of a tourist trap thing, but we got to see some neat trees and we helped some lost children.

This picture doesn't seem that interesting, until you see me at the very bottom looking up at the tree.

We rode the Sky Trail up the mountain to a lookout point.

From the lookout point we could see the Pacific.

On our way back we stopped at Meyers Creek Beach.

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Here are pictures of our cabin on our last day.

This staircase was built around this very old tree.

The owner had a guestbook and Ben and I both signed it.  I added a little sketch of Oregon.

We headed from Coos Back back up to Portland on Tuesday so that we could spend the afternoon and evening in the city before flying out on Wednesday.  There was a beautiful rose garden on the mountain.

There were hundreds of roses scattered everywhere throughout the garden.  I didn't even know that many types of roses exist!  The smell of all the roses perfumed the air and was very relaxing.

Our honeymoon was just perfect.  After being long-distance for 4 years, it was nice to get away and have it be just us.  We made so many memories and had the time of our lives.  Hopefully we will get to go back to the beautiful Pacific Northwest.