Unbiological is not a word.  It’s a prefix attached to biological.  Biological means that there are shared cells when we are talking about parenting.  I don’t share any cells with my kids.  I do share everything else.

I started out as a teacher, and after a very long day, my wise husband thought that we would make fantastic foster parents.  He was standing on the porch when I got home, and said, “What do you think about being a foster parent?”

“Have you lost your mind?” I asked, swiftly rounding the front of my car with three very heavy school bags.

A few days later I found myself in a classroom with other couples learning to be foster parents.  As we learned, we grew as a couple.  We struggled through some concepts and breezed through others.  We learned a lot about each other and explored what we believed.

I struggled with a name for myself to start this blog.  The prefix “un” is negative.  I am not negative, I don’t think I have ever been described as negative.  However, biology is the one characteristic of motherhood I haven’t experienced.  We will explore the reactions of the biological moms to the “un” biological moms in a different post, I promise!

I thought a lot about what I wanted to share, and how I wanted to bring something to those who go about parenting in a different way, and in our case may struggle, feel like you’re the only one going through stuff, and yet find a way.  There is hope in each child who can be hugged, nurtured, loved, and safe.  One of the most profound things I learned through our journey, is that there are so many kids out there who can’t handle a hug, don’t trust nurturing, refuse to believe they are worthy of love, and have never been safe.  Another profound and shocking piece of information is those kids live in our communities.  They are our neighbors.

With the thought that we don’t know who any of them are, at any given time, isn’t it worth it….. to share a smile with the kids who cross your path?  Please, hug your own a little tighter and count the blessings, even after a long day, even if you wait till they are asleep!

 

 

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