Post 21: Was it God?

Have you ever had one of those encounters where you walk away and wonder if God's talking to you? We've struggled with trying to get pregnant, but have kept it really quiet. My family and a few friends know - maybe 10 people total - so there's no way that the lady I met today knew to approach me. I set up a booth today for Children's Day at the Tazewell County Fair to recruit new students for the dance studio. The booth randomly set up beside of me was for foster care. I didn't speak two words to the woman running the booth other than a polite hello. Otherwise, it was silent. 

As I was packing up to head home, the lady approached me. She said she worked with foster care, and wondered if I'd ever thought about becoming a foster parent. She could tell that I liked children, was married, and had a stable job, and I was an ideal age and candidate to become a foster parent. Her comments took me totally by surprise. I'd never met this woman, but had been contemplating foster care for quite some time. 

I talked to this woman for about 30 minutes. I explained to her that we were going through fertility treatments, and had seriously considered foster care, but that I didn't think it was fair to take on a child while going through treatments, and that I didn't think I could give a child back to a parent who abused them. She then told me that they offer a foster to adopt program, in which the children are legally emancipated, and can be adopted directly from the foster care system if desired. I didn't realize that this was an option. I thought that foster care was when children were going back and forth between their birth parents and a family that cares for them, and that there was a very small chance of being able to adopt through foster care. We talked for a little while longer, and she answered my questions, and encouraged me to fill out the paperwork. 

As I left the fair, I told the woman to give me six months, and that if we still weren't pregnant, and had expended all means, then we would contact her about becoming foster parents, with the intention of adoption. 

When I got home, I talked to Shaun about my chance meeting. I fessed up that I'd been thinking about foster care and adoption because we're so close to reaching the end of our journey with infertility. I told him how the meeting may have been God placing someone at the right place and the right time, but that I still didn't have the desire to adopt. He agreed! When I first started to tell Shaun about talking with the woman from foster care, his first words were, "If we have to, we will adopt, but as long as there are ways to have our own child, I don't want to give up on our dream." It was at this point where I realized it may have just been a chance meeting, and not a God planted introduction. However, time will tell, and only God really knows the answer.