until we meet them

on our last home visit with our social worker she had photos of 2 brothers, ages 8 and 10, that she had just found out about. they were in separate foster homes and the county wanted to place them together. we were interested and wanted to know more. older children have a say in their future placements. the older brother requested a home with a mother and father so the county pursued other placement options for the boys. we knew in our hearts that our family would find us, we needed to be patient and let it happen. in april of that year we were told about another placement, 2 half-sisters, ages 2 and 4, living in a bad neighborhood in another county. sometimes foster homes aren't available in the county where the children are from so children's services has to place them wherever they can find homes. their current foster mother was a fundamentalist christian and slightly too old to be raising young children. the county was worried about the girls living in such a dangerous neighborhood and wanted a safer home for them. they asked if we would consider having only one us us meet with the girls and foster mother, leading her to believe that one of us was adopting as a single parent. they feared that if the foster mother knew two gay men were interested in adoption she would fill the girls with fear. we wanted to be upfront about the fact that we were a gay couple so we didn't pursue this placement. everyone that knew us at children's services really liked us and wanted to find a family for us.