Joshua and Daniel ~

This was our first experience "knowing" a Foster child. It was strange, because after we decided that it was what we felt called to do, we met several foster children all within a short 3 month period. About Daniel ... I won't include all of the details on this blog, but to make a long story short / we were told by his current foster Mom that it wasn't a "fit" for their family, and she was going to request that we have him instead. We were really hoping to have Daniel come stay with us as a Foster child who may be up for adoption soon. It turned out that he ended up staying in his current Foster home, but we really grew to care for him and were able to see and talk to him quite often at Joshua's school. He and Joshua were very close friends while they attended school together. Joshua was so sad when Daniel had to change schools. We tried our best (meeting at DSS in person) to be able to have him come live with us. It just didn't work out though and we ALL were very sad about the entire situation. These are the ups and downs of fostering though. Daniel is a dear sweet little boy. We still think of him often. I was able to sub teach in his classroom one day and I could tell that he desparetly needed and yearned for some "boundaries". He actually got up from his desk in the middle of class and ran around the room until wrote his name on the board. Then, I told him that I would send him to the principal's office. The look in his eyes told me that he knew I was serious! He listened so much better from that point on. I told him at the end of the day, "Daniel, you are a good boy". He looked up at me and said timidly "I am"? He didn't appear to have enough self esteem to believe that he is worth hearing that. Dennis spoke to him all of the time too and they became buddies in the 1st grade hallway and in the cafeteria when we would visit Joshua for lunch. He would look for him when we went in to pick up Joshua. On days that Dennis didn't go in with me, Daniel would seek me out in the busy hallway and say "can you tell Mr. Dennis I said hey". He will come up for adoption if that is what is meant for him, and we still hold out hope that maybe he can be our child one day. If it is meant for us anyway. I can say this ... if he doesn't end up back with his birth mother, ANY family would be lucky to have this little angel in their lives. He is a warm, friendly little man with a huge heart. Such a special little guy! :) We will keep him in our prayers.