A Home For Zoe

Before Zoe (Edited)

The picture above is of Alanna and Bridger Bradley

"Whether your children are yours through
biology or adoption,
they are yours though love."

Alanna

I had a perfect childhood. I had parents who stayed together, a huge and loving extended family, and great friends. The one thing I didn't have was a sibling. I wanted one more than anything, and because of that I fell in love with the idea of big families. Then, when I was eleven my parents and I became a foster family. It was like a door opened to a different world, and I knew my calling; I would adopt from foster care.

Foster care became my passion, and so, years later, on my first date with my husband, I said to him, "I want to be a foster parent, and I want to adopt from foster care." When he told me that was something that he had thought about too, I knew. After a couple years we got married, and, a year after our honeymoon, we became foster parents.

Our plan was not to search out children who were looking to be adopted. Cason and Chloe were our fifth placement, he was ten and she was eight, they were terrified, but they were so sweet and well behaved. It took us mere hours to fall in love with them, but the adoption took over a year to be finalized.

During that time, I got pregnant with the twins, two tiny baby girls, with two awesome older siblings. But we weren't done, Tyler arrived soon after, at the age of six, he was shy and quiet, we were his first and only placement after removal. It took almost three years for the courts to finalize the adoption.

Our family is full of love, full of laughter, and we are crazy busy, shuttling five kids around to activities. Tyler came out of his shell; he was no longer shy or quiet. Chloe took up dance, and Cason began to play sports year-round.

I can't tell you that our life doesn't get overwhelming at times. That there aren't days I would do just about anything for a few minutes alone, but then I remember how much I love my kids, how much they love each other and how incredible it is that we all found the way to each other.

It's early afternoon and I'm toweling off the twins after a swim in the pool, when I hear my cell phone ringing. "Cason!" I call, "Can you grab that?" There is a shuffling of feat and a loud sigh. I smirk; teenagers. I turn my attention back to the twins and pull a sundress over each of their heads, before running a comb through their hair.

"Why can't we watch TV, Mommy?" whines Hannah.

"Did you even ask?" I reply automatically.

"Can we please watch TV, Mommy?" asks Peyton.

"Yes, you may. Go ask Chloe to put something on for you."

"Thank you," they chorus as they take off for the living room. I smile to myself.

"Mom, it's Mrs. Anderson," calls Cason's voice.

"I'll be right there." I speed walk towards the kitchen and take the phone out of Cason's hand, mouthing "thank you." He gives me a smile, before clomping away. "Hello, Mrs. Anderson!" I say brightly, she was Cason and Chloe's case worker when they were first placed with us.

"Hi, Alanna. How are you?"

"I'm good. You?"

"I'm doing okay. I'm hoping you can help me out with something."

"I'll do my best," I reply.

"I'm working with a teen girl," she pauses, "her name is Zoe. She's spent about half of her life in care. I couple of placements that fell through and a handful of group homes. Anyway, there was an issue at her group home, and I'm scrambling to keep her from going to another one."

My heart breaks for this poor girl, but, "What kind of an issue?" I hear Mrs. Anderson wince.

"I'm not really sure on the details, but she got into some kind of altercation with one of the younger girls."

"You know I'd love to take her, but if there's a chance she might hurt one of my kids ... I can't risk that."

"She wouldn't. She's a really great kid, she just seems to end up in the wrong place at the wrong time."

I consider, how can I turn this girl away when she so desperately needs a home. But how can I risk my children's safety even a little bit. I sigh, "Let me see if I can reach Bridger. I'll call you back."

Bridger answers on the first ring, "What's up?"

Five minutes later, I've got Mrs. Anderson back on the line, "What time will you be dropping her off?" I ask.

When I tell the kids that a fourteen-year-old girl named Zoe is coming to stay with us they are on top of the moon. They all love getting a new placement, especially the twins, which I'm grateful for. Of course, the twins have no memories from before we started fostering. Peyton is practically bouncing of the walls, but I manage to distract her, as well as Hannah, by letting them help with dinner. It's was only about a half an hour later when I hear a knock on the door.