Welcome Whitney!

We have decided to make a website for Whitney and our journey together. This will help everyone keep up with us and it will be easier to update. If all goes well we hope to adopt her by this summer. This picture was on the night we brought her home, bless her heart, she was so tired.

Here is our story up until now.

Bert and I started our foster care journey this summer first starting with all of the paperwork, background checks, fingerprinting, home study, and trainings. We knew that we wanted to foster kids ages 0-4 years old and only 1 or 2 at a time. We were told by several people that they don't place young ones very often without several siblings and that we could wait six months or longer. We also knew that we wanted to adopt someday we just didn't know that someday would come so soon. But when this infant came available and they couldn't place her it was such a blessing to be chosen to be her family.

We first met Whitney at our first training session. The trainers were her foster parents who have had her since she was a month old and they brought her along. The first month of her life she was in Children's Hospital in Denver. They said she was going to be available for adoption soon so if we wanted her we needed to make a decision fast. Bert and I talked about it that night and decided that's what we wanted to do. We were told that they would consider us but for us not to get our hopes up. Also since we lived an hour from where Whitney is from and that we were first-foster parents it didn't help. A couple of weeks later we were told that she was going to another family. It was heartbreaking, but we wanted whatever was best for Whitney. After a week we got a call saying that the potential placement fell through and were we still interested! Well we were. But this caseworker came back and said that she had another family for this baby, so we were heartbroken again, but we still had faith. I told Bert that one way or another we were going to get her, I just felt it. So a few days later we got another call and that other family had backed out. So it was us again....we waited by the phone. The caseworker just wanted someone closer but we said we would drive her there whenever we needed to. Saturday morning we got a call from the foster mom and she got the approval for us to take care of Whitney Saturday afternoon for us to get a feel for her and to show the caseworker that we really wanted her. The caseworker finally called us and asked if we wanted her. Well of course we did!! We picked her up from her foster parents that night and brought her to her new home on November 20, 2007.

A little about Whitney. She is 5 1/2 months old now. She is 11lbs 2 oz. She has a feeding tube but will come off of it soon we hope. She was born with her intestines and stomach on the outside of her body. Because she never learned to suck right she has a feeding tube to make sure she gets enough nutrition. Right now she is more dependent on her feeding tube than she needs to be and we are working on that with her.
So far she is doing great! We have her tummy and feeding issues under control and she is gaining weight. We have a long road with her that Bert and I are just so excited to be a part of it.

Thank you all for your wonderful support!