Keith here

Hello readers, Keith here.  Congratulations on reading the first ever blog post I've written.  Hopefully it won't be so bad that its the last!  I told Aundrea that I wanted to be a "Guest Blogger" and give my 2-cents every now and then, but she quickly reminded me that this was OUR blog, so I could be a little more active with it if I wanted.  So I'm going to give it a shot.

Since this is mostly about our journey to become licensed foster/adoptive parents, I'll share one of my deepest secrets.  Now, just like any good secret, I don't expect this to be blabbed about and passed on from person to person (that would make it gossip, not a secret, right?); rather, this will be limited to those select few who take time out of their day to read this:

I'm nervous.

Those of you who are parents can easily remember the feelings and emotions that you had when you had your first kid (or 2nd, or 3rd, or 4th.....).  Scared, excited, nervous, afraid, anxious, stressed, tired.  But the way I see it, when we had our kids we were blessed with the opportunity to have an active part in the environment they were raised in.  I could shelter them when I felt needed, and let them venture out on their own when appropriate.  With our potential foster kids, we may not know exactly what they've been through before they're sleeping in our home.

One of my prayers as we go through this is that God will increase all of His good qualities in me and decrease all of the bad ones I've chosen to pick up.  Give me more patience.  Calm my anger.  Allow me to love without getting anything in return.  I think now is the time I need to work on these things, because if I can't do this with my biological kids now then what hope do I have with foster kids?

As I am usually a man of few words, I think I'll end this one here.  I have a few ideas for future posts so I'm sure you'll see me around again.  If you like this, then feel free to keep reading.  If you didn't like it, then keep reading anyway because Aundrea is much better at this than I am and I would hate for you to miss out!