Our Little Miracle (Part I)

Chad and I first started looking into the foster to adopt program in May of 2010. We had been on the list with LDS Family Services for about 6 months, and felt like this would add one more avenue for us to add to our little family.

We attended classes every Tuesday and Thursday for the month of June, learning about the families and children who are served by the foster care program. We opted to participate in the fost to adopt program. This program allows foster parents to adopt the children they have fostered if the children’s parents rights are either terminated, or the parents relinquish their parental rights to the child.

We went through extensive background checks and several interviews. There’s nothing quite like auditioning for the role of parent! We were thrilled to find that we passed with flying colors, and indeed could become foster parents. After several additional hoops and paperwork, we were finally given the official stamp of approval in early September.

Chad and I had been told that we most likely would not receive a child in our home right away. We had been specific on our paperwork, and felt that an infant between the age of 0-1 would be the best fit for our family. We were prepared to wait for quite a while. The social worker said she would be surprised if anything were to happen before February 2011 at the earliest.

October 15th started out as any other day. Right before taking Tate to school we said a quick family prayer. It was my (Lindsay) turn to say it. I don’t know why, but I specifically asked that we receive a call that day for a baby to join our family. I think maybe I was being a little impatient and bossy! I decided that if I had faith, and if it was the right thing for our family at that time, that the Lord would bless us with a baby. That day.

Around 2:45pm on October 15th the phone rang. I was in the basement and thought “this is DCFS.” Then I of course thought how silly I was being. Surely it wasn’t DCFS. I checked the caller ID and it was just a regular old phone number. I sighed, then picked up the phone. The man on the phone asked for me, and then went on to explain that he was the on-call caseworker for the weekend. He explained that a baby was in the NICU at Intermountain Medical Center, and was scheduled to be released on Sunday, and needed a family to go home to. Were we interested? I said “of course!” And then remembered from our classes that we should always ask for the details first to makes sure it would be a good fit for our family. There was no way I was going to rescind my enthusiastic first response, but I did decide some details would be good--like whether I was going to be taking pink or blue with me to the hospital!

It turned out that blue would continue to be the theme at the Goeckeritz house! The baby was a little boy named Justin. He was 4 weeks old, but had been born 8 weeks early on September 17th, 2010.

Tate was right next to me during this phone call (Max was asleep.) With tears in my eyes I asked him if he remembered what we had asked for in our prayer that morning. We talked about it for a minute, then I explained who had just called and why.

Chad only works until 3pm on Friday’s, so he pulled into the driveway not long after I hung up with the social worker. I bounced out to his car and asked if he wanted a baby. He looked at me incredulously, and asked “seriously?” I breathlessly re-capped the phone call with the social worker.

After a couple of hours we were given permission to go to the hospital and meet Justin. Grandma Janet took the boys to her house for the evening so we could be with Justin. We were nervous at the hospital as we scrubbed up to go into the NICU. We had no idea what to expect. What we found was a beautiful 4 lb. little boy with big gorgeous eyes wrapped up in the blanket. We walked into his room and just looked at him. He had several wires protruding from his blanket, and we assumed we would not be able to hold him. Luckily we were wrong! The nurse gently lifted him and placed him into my arms. I knew at that moment that this little boy was meant to be with our family. I didn’t know for how long, but I knew I would love him forever, regardless of whether he stayed with us or not.

Daddy meets Justin

Mommy meets Justin

Our teeny, tiny babe

Sweet, sweet, boy!